The United States is running a budget deficit of 6% of GDP and has $40 trillion in national debt.
"how can you blame the person in charge now when we're at a 6% deficit and $40 trillion of debt?" (said at 0:16:27)
The claim combines two fiscal statistics for the United States. While the federal budget deficit has recently run at approximately 6% of GDP (averaging between 5.8% and 6.4% of GDP across fiscal years 2023 and 2024), the total US gross national debt had not reached $40 trillion, standing at approximately $34 to $35 trillion in 2024. The $40 trillion figure represents future projected debt levels rather than the actual debt.
- partial: A Cointegrating Regression Analysis of the Impacts of Greater Economic Freedom and Perceiv… (American Business Review 2025)
"Moreover, this study not only finds consistent empirical support on behalf of both of these hypotheses but also for the argument that the federal budget deficit (expressed as a percent of GDP) per se places upward pressure in financial markets on the real cost of borrowing for firms." (abstract, passage verified)
openalexfull study (doi)