$39 trillion national debt is ‘an embarrassing milestone,’ think tank says. ‘Clearly headed in the wrong direction’

The United States’ gross national debt crossed $39 trillion on Tuesday, a grim new threshold that a prominent fiscal watchdog says reflects decades of irresponsibility from both Republicans and Democrats — with no signs that Washington is ready to change course.

“Surpassing $39 trillion in gross debt is an embarrassing milestone that both parties have helped build over decades, and neither seems particularly interested in addressing it before we hit $40 trillion,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), in a statement released Wednesday.​

The figure, confirmed by the U.S. Treasury, marks a rapid escalation in the nation’s fiscal slide. The debt stood at $38 trillion as recently as late October of last year — meaning Washington added a full $1 trillion in gross debt in less than five months. Debt held by the public, the measure most closely tracked by economists, has separately surpassed $31 trillion for the first time.​

The numbers paint a portrait of a government living far beyond its means. Annual deficits are approaching $2 trillion, and deficits as a share of the economy are running at roughly twice the 3%-of-GDP target that economists and bipartisan policymakers have long identified as a sustainable benchmark.​

“No matter what metric one chooses to examine our fiscal trajectory, we are clear...