Throughout much of American history, when we went to war, we created special taxes to pay for them. During the Vietnam War, a tax on telephone use was part of the revenue that funded that war. As a result, thousands of people protested the war by refusing to pay the telephone tax.
But following the terrorist attacks on 9/11, the wars have been charged on the American credit card called the “National Debt.” Over the past quarter century, the US has spent, or obligated, more than $8 trillion for war expenses.
Combined with tax cuts from the so-called “Big Beautiful Bill,” our national debt as of July 23 had climbed to $39,663,342,439,086, according to the Peterson Foundation. On Jan. 20, 2025, Trump (2) Inauguration Day, it was $36,104,000,000,000. That’s an increase of $3.559 trillion over the 552 days Trump has been president. Put another way, we’re spending $6.5 billion dollars a day more than we have revenue for.
At this rate of spending, our national debt will reach $40 trillion on or about Sept. 13.
It took all of American history up to 1982 to get to $1 trillion, 26 years (2008) to get to $10 trillion, 9 years (2017) to get to $20 trillion, and 5 years (2022) to get to $30 trillion. To paraphrase former US Sen. Everett Dirkson, a trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. (He was referring to billions of dollars.)
The data above does not include additional requests from the Trump administration. The current war against Iran has blown through our defense budget, such that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has appealed to Congress for additional war dollars and the Republican House has approved $95 billion.
And President Trump has asked for more than a 50 percent increase in the defense budget for FY27, to $1.5 trillion. There are no plans for a tax increase to pay for this and interest on the debt is currently costing $1 trillion each year.
We will be handing all this obligation to our great-grandchildren. I remember when Republicans used to be deficit hawks, but since 2000, they don’t seem to be very concerned with the debt unless there’s a Democrat in office. The last president to run a budget surplus was Bill Clinton.
The $3.6 trillion added to our debt since Jan. 20, 2025, has happened despite cuts that will result in millions of Americans losing health insurance and food stamps, and dramatic cuts to foreign aid, education, medical research and much more. On the other hand, Trump keeps spending.
The demolished East Wing will cost a billion to rebuild. Billionaires have seen their taxes cut. And Trump has accepted a “free” jet from the country of Qatar that will be featured in his presidential library after $400 million in taxpayers’ money is used to outfit the plane properly.
Big Beautiful bill tax cuts and spending reductions were expected to result in $3 to 3.4 trillion in deficits over a decade, not 18 months.
Trump went bankrupt six times, and it’s easy to see why and how. The problem is that the Republican Congress seemingly cannot say no and hold this president accountable.
If we ever regain a sensible government, we will need several constitutional amendments to prevent the effective bankruptcy of our country and presidential criminality from becoming the norm.
Perhaps one amendment should be that, before engaging in wars of choice, we need to provide the means to pay for them. Our great-grandchildren will appreciate it.
Bill Walczak is a Dorchester resident. His column appears regularly in The Reporter.
