US National Debt Hits $33 Trillion for First Time

The debate over the debt has grown louder this year (Reuters)
The debate over the debt has grown louder this year (Reuters)
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US National Debt Hits $33 Trillion for First Time

The debate over the debt has grown louder this year (Reuters)
The debate over the debt has grown louder this year (Reuters)

The US national debt exceeded $33 trillion for the first time on Monday, providing a stark reminder of the country’s shaky fiscal trajectory at a moment when Washington faces the prospect of a government shutdown this month amid another fight over federal spending.

The Treasury Department noted the milestone in its daily report detailing the nation’s balance sheet.

It came as Congress appeared to be faltering in its efforts to fund the government ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline. Unless Congress can pass a dozen appropriations bills or agree to a short-term extension of federal funding at existing levels, the United States will face its first government shutdown since 2019.

Over the weekend, House Republicans considered a short-term proposal that would slash spending for most federal agencies and resurrect tough Trump-era border initiatives to extend funding through the end of October.

But the plan had little hope of breaking the impasse on Capitol Hill, with Republicans still divided on their demands and Democrats unlikely to support whatever compromise they reach among themselves, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

It said the debate over the debt has grown louder this year, punctuated by an extended standoff over raising the nation’s borrowing cap.

“That fight ended with a bipartisan agreement to suspend the debt limit for two years and cut federal spending by $1.5 trillion over a decade by essentially freezing some funding that had been projected to increase next year and then limiting spending to 1 percent growth in 2025,” it said.

But the debt is on track to top $50 trillion by the end of the decade, even after newly passed spending cuts are taken into account, as interest on the debt mounts and the cost of the nation’s social safety net programs keeps growing.

Slowing the growth of the national debt continues to be daunting.

Some federal spending programs that passed during the Biden administration are expected to be more costly than previously projected.

The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 was previously estimated to cost about $400 billion over a decade, but according to estimates by the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model it could cost more than $1 trillion thanks to strong demand for the law’s generous clean energy tax credits, the newspaper said.

Pandemic-era relief programs are still costing the federal government money. The Internal Revenue Service said last week that claims for the Employee Retention Credit, a tax benefit that was originally projected to cost about $55 billion, have so far cost the federal government $230 billion.

At the same time, several of President Joe Biden’s attempts to raise more revenue through tax changes have been met with resistance.

In late 2022, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) delayed by one year a new tax policy that would require users of digital wallets and e-commerce platforms to start reporting small transactions to the agency. The policy was projected to raise about $8 billion in additional tax revenue over a decade.



IMF Appoints First Mission Chief to Syria in 14 Years

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) police officer directs delegates as people arrive to the building during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) police officer directs delegates as people arrive to the building during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
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IMF Appoints First Mission Chief to Syria in 14 Years

An International Monetary Fund (IMF) police officer directs delegates as people arrive to the building during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
An International Monetary Fund (IMF) police officer directs delegates as people arrive to the building during the World Bank/IMF Spring Meetings at the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headquarters in Washington, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

The International Monetary Fund has appointed Ron van Rooden as head of its mission to Syria, Syria's Finance Minister Mohammed Yosr Bernieh said in a written statement, making him the first country mission chief since war erupted there 14 years ago.
Bernieh said van Rooden's appointment came "following our request" and he shared a post on LinkedIn, showing himself shaking hands with van Rooden while attending the annual IMF-World Bank Spring meetings in Washington, D.C.
"This important appointment marks an important step and paves the way for constructive dialogue between the IMF and Syria, with the shared objective of advancing Syria's economic recovery and improving the well-being of the Syrian people," Bernieh wrote, according to Reuters.
The IMF press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A source familiar with the IMF's decisions on Syria confirmed van Rooden's appointment.
According to the IMF's website, Syria has had no transactions with the fund in the last 40 years. The last IMF mission trip to Syria was in late 2009, more than a year before protests against then-leader Bashar al-Assad erupted.
Assad's crackdown triggered a full-scale war that left much of the country destroyed before he was ousted in a lightning offensive by the opposition last December.
The new leaders have been keen to re-establish Syria's ties regionally and internationally, rebuild the country and secure the lifting of tough US sanctions to kickstart its economy.
Bernieh and Syria's central bank chief Abdelkader Husrieh are attending the annual spring meetings in Washington, the first time a high-level Syrian government team attends the meetings in at least two decades, and the first official visit by Syria's new authorities to the US since Assad's fall.
On Tuesday, the Saudi finance minister and the World Bank co-hosted a roundtable on Syria. Bernieh, in a separate LinkedIn post, described the roundtable as "very successful" and said there was "unprecedented" interest in supporting Syria's reconstruction.
A top official from the United Nations Development Program told Reuters last week the agency is planning to deliver $1.3 billion in support to Syria over the next three years.