By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

The U.S. government added $696 billion to the national debt over the past four months, borrowing $94 billion in the month of January alone, the Congressional Budget Office reports.

The number further heightens the risk that America will experience some kind of financial crisis unless deficits are tamed, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Maya MacGuineas warned.

“If we continue to borrow at this rate, it leaves us on the path to another year of a $1.8 trillion or higher deficit,” MacGuineas stated Monday. “If these estimates aren’t alarming enough, the national debt continues to climb toward record levels – equaling about the size of the entire U.S. economy today.”

Due to excessive borrowing, the $38 trillion national debt stands at 100% of Gross Domestic Product. The highest percentage the national debt has ever made up of GDP was 106%, and that was immediately following World War II.

The CBO report shows that increased government spending is not the only culprit for high deficits.

Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill – the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” – boosted tax deductions for corporations making certain investments. The change has so far reduced corporate income taxes collected by $22 billion.

“Unless lawmakers want record-high debts and deficits to be our norm, both sides of the aisle must come together to address our unsustainable borrowing,” MacGuineas said. “The longer lawmakers wait, the higher the price for Americans.”

Federal spending on debt interest payments alone hit a record in fiscal year 2025, with the U.S. government’s net interest payments exceeding $1 trillion for the first time, about 18% of annual revenue.

The consequences of high deficits and debt include rising inflation and interest rates, slower economic growth, and even national security.

Although laws like PAYGO are supposed to help keep deficits under control by penalizing spending that is not offset, Congress regularly bypasses the rules.

More than 60 senators in November quietly forgave an estimated $3.4 trillion in deficits from Republicans’ budget reconciliation bill, The Center Square reported.