Floor Remarks by Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa
Senate President Pro Tempore
“U.S. Public Debt Now Exceeds 100% of GDP, Setting a Fiscal Milestone”
Tuesday, May 12, 2026

 

VIDEO

 

Last week, I held 12 Q&As in 12 different [Iowa] counties during our Senate recess.

Not in every county, but in some counties, a question like this comes up: “What are you going to do about the national debt?”

I usually say to the person asking the question: “You could have asked me an easier question.”

So, I come to the floor to speak to an announcement that was made last week, an announcement that ought to scare all Americans, but particularly those of us in the Congress of the United States, and it was not a surprise announcement.

The United States recently eclipsed a fiscal milestone. At the end of March, the nation's publicly held debt surpassed the value of all goods and services produced in our economy.

Another way to say that is our national debt, as a percentage of our gross national product, was more than 100%. Outside of a momentary blip during the pandemic, the nation hasn’t exceeded this mark since 1946.

Passing this threshold should be a wake-up call to Congress to get the nation’s fiscal house in order.

In 1946, debt relative to the economy hit its peak and precipitously declined thereafter thanks to the end of World War II.

Today, it’s just the opposite. Our debt is expected to grow faster than the economy indefinitely. And it ought to be a wake-up call to all of us in the Congress of the United States.

In fact, interest on the debt alone is costing American taxpayers one trillion dollars annually. And within ten years, interest costs [will] top two trillion dollars.

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that does this scoring reminds us with every budget update that this fiscal path is “unsustainable.”

Economist Herb Stein famously [quipped], “If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.” Our debt cannot grow faster than the economy forever. It eventually will stop. The question is when and how.

We have this choice, as members of Congress representing the people of this country that are very concerned about this situation: we can either work together today to gradually turn the corner, or wait until there is a crisis where draconian austerity measures are forced upon us by the national creditors.

For the good of the nation, we must embrace the former option.

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