• Republican Joint Economic Committee chairman warns national debt threatens children’s economic future the same week CBO confirms the GOP’s own tax law added $4.7 trillion to deficits
• National debt hit $38.6 trillion with over $1 trillion added in the first four months of fiscal year 2026 alone, while interest payments approach $1 trillion annually
• Budget watchdogs from both parties say the contradiction between Republican fiscal rhetoric and voting records has reached a breaking point

WASHINGTON, DC (TDR) — On Wednesday, Representative David Schweikert — the Republican chairman of the Joint Economic Committee — issued a stark warning about the national debt reaching $38.6 trillion, declaring the country is “threatening the economic future of our children and grandchildren.” The warning arrived just one week after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office confirmed that the GOP national debt legislation Republicans passed last summer — the One Big Beautiful Bill Act — will add $4.7 trillion to deficits through 2035 when accounting for interest and economic effects.

The timing presents a contradiction that budget analysts across the political spectrum have struggled to reconcile: the same party now sounding the fiscal alarm voted overwhelmingly for legislation that the CBO says represents the most expensive law passed by Congress since the 2012 American Taxpayer Relief Act.

The Alarming Numbers Behind GOP National Debt Warnings

The figures Schweikert cited are genuinely alarming. According to the Joint Economic Committee’s monthly debt update, the national debt has increased by $2.35 trillion over the past year — averaging $6.43 billion per day, $267 million per hour and roughly $74,000 per second. In the first four months of fiscal year 2026 alone, the federal government added more than $1 trillion in new debt.

“We continue to hit new record highs for our national debt, exacerbating an already economic threat our nation faces. In this fiscal year alone, we have added more than $1 trillion, bringing the total to $38.647 trillion.”

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Schweikert warned that interest payments are accelerating the crisis faster than many lawmakers realize.

“As we continue down this path of spending borrowed money, interest payments are on track to become one of the largest drivers of federal spending, and eventually, the largest line item in the budget.”

The CBO’s February 2026 budget outlook confirmed the trajectory. Debt held by the public will grow from roughly $31 trillion today to $56 trillion by 2036 — reaching 120% of GDP and surpassing the previous record set after World War II. Net interest costs alone will more than double, from $970 billion in 2025 to $2.1 trillion by 2036.

“CBO’s latest baseline shows an unsustainable fiscal outlook, with debt approaching record levels, deficits remaining elevated at more than twice a reasonable target, and interest costs exploding.”

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That assessment came from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan watchdog that has been equally critical of spending under both parties.

The Legislation Republicans Actually Passed

Here is where the contradiction becomes impossible to ignore. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, signed by President Donald Trump on July 4, 2025, permanently extended trillions in tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act while adding new tax breaks including no taxes on tips and overtime. The CBO scored it at $3.4 trillion in added deficits over 10 years — or $4.7 trillion when accounting for interest and macroeconomic effects.

The Bipartisan Policy Center broke down the math: $4.5 trillion in reduced tax revenue, partially offset by $1.4 trillion in spending cuts — many targeting Medicaid and food assistance programs. The legislation also included a $5 trillion increase in the debt ceiling, effectively giving Congress permission to borrow more money while its members warned about borrowing too much.

Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, captured the disconnect directly.

“It’s still hard to believe that policymakers just added $4 trillion to the debt. Many supporters of this law have spent months or years appropriately fuming about our unsustainable fiscal situation. But when they actually had an opportunity to fix it, they instead made it $4 trillion worse.”

MacGuineas also noted that supporters used an accounting maneuver — a “current policy” baseline instead of actual current law — to make the tax extensions appear cost-free, calling it “a dangerous game” that reached “new levels with this bill.”

The GOP National Debt Defense: Growth Will Cover It

Republicans have not been silent on the contradiction. House Budget Committee Chairman Jody Arrington argued that the pro-growth economic effects of tax cuts are not fully captured in CBO models. In response to the CBO’s February projections, Arrington acknowledged the fiscal trajectory is unsustainable but pointed to early signs of stronger growth.

“Not surprisingly, we have seen two quarters of stronger-than-expected economic growth since WFTC passed, which is exactly what I expected to happen when I voted for this bill, and what Republicans intended to happen when we wrote the bill.”

“It is critical that we account for the progress that we’ve made and apply a fuller understanding of the positive impact of these pro-growth tax policies.”

The CBO partially addressed this argument in its dynamic scoring analysis, which found the legislation would increase real GDP by an average of 0.5% over 10 years — a modest boost that would reduce the deficit impact from $3.4 trillion to $2.8 trillion. But the CBO also found higher interest rates resulting from increased borrowing would offset much of that economic gain, with the 10-year Treasury yield rising by an average of 14 basis points.

The Center for American Progress, a left-leaning think tank, calculated that the increased debt would push debt-to-GDP to 129% by 2034 and 200% by 2055 under a permanent extension scenario. The Yale Budget Lab estimated the higher deficits could translate to between $600 and $1,240 in additional annual mortgage interest payments per household.

Democrats Point Fingers — While Sharing the Blame

Democrats have seized on the contradiction. Senator Gary Peters of Michigan delivered a floor speech framing the debt as a direct consequence of Republican tax policy.

“Instead of paying their fair share like most Americans, Republicans just wrote President Trump and the richest Americans a more favorable tax code, making sure they get to hold onto their wealth and watch it grow. And when the richest Americans still do not succeed, they are given the leeway to bail themselves out.”

But independent budget analysts point out that neither party has clean hands. The national debt grew substantially under Democratic administrations as well — the CBO’s own projections showed unsustainable deficits before the One Big Beautiful Bill was ever signed, driven by rising mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare and other programs that both parties have consistently refused to meaningfully reform.

Jonathan Burks, executive vice president at the Bipartisan Policy Center, noted that the problem predates any single piece of legislation.

“Large deficits are unprecedented for a growing, peacetime economy. The good news is there is still time for policymakers to correct course.”

Burks urged both parties to work together on revenue and spending adjustments before the available options become significantly more painful.

What Voters Actually Think

The disconnect between fiscal rhetoric and fiscal action has not gone unnoticed. A Peter G. Peterson Foundation survey conducted in January 2026 found that 81% of voters want Congress to spend more time addressing the national debt — including 87% of Republicans. The survey’s Fiscal Confidence Index scored just 50 out of 100, with the “priority” subcategory at a dismal 26 — indicating voters believe leaders are failing to treat the debt with appropriate urgency.

“The national debt is growing faster than ever, and voters understand that this is a major problem for America’s economic future.”

That assessment came from Michael Peterson, CEO of the Peterson Foundation. A separate Fortune/Peterson poll found that 77% of voters across party lines — including 72% of Democrats and 69% of independents — agree that reducing the debt should be among lawmakers’ top three priorities.

The polling reveals a bipartisan public consensus that exists nowhere in actual legislation. Both parties campaign on fiscal responsibility and govern with deficit expansion — but the scale of the current contradiction, in which the same lawmakers warning about catastrophic debt levels voted months earlier to add trillions to it, represents a gap between word and deed that budget watchers say has reached unprecedented dimensions.

Meanwhile, the CRFB warned that the fiscal window is closing. Several major trust funds are approaching insolvency — the Highway Trust Fund by 2028, Social Security’s retirement fund by 2032 — and under CBO projections, the average interest rate on federal debt will soon exceed the rate of economic growth, a condition economists describe as the potential start of a debt spiral.

When the lawmakers issuing the most urgent warnings about America’s fiscal trajectory are the same ones who voted for legislation that budget analysts universally agree made it trillions worse, what metrics should voters use to distinguish genuine concern about debt from political positioning — and does the contradiction itself accelerate the crisis by eroding public trust in any proposed solution?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from Newsweek’s reporting on Republican debt warnings, the Joint Economic Committee’s February 2026 debt update and Chairman Schweikert’s statement, the Congressional Budget Office’s February 2026 outlook and dynamic scoring of the OBBBA, analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and their assessment of the final OBBBA score, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s cost breakdown, reporting by PBS News, Fortune, the Washington Examiner, and The Hill, the American Action Forum, the Center for American Progress, Peter G. Peterson Foundation polling data, the House Budget Committee, and Senator Peters’ floor remarks.

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