Concord’s Bourdeaux: “Congress cannot pay lip service to this milestone today and then simply return to business as usual tomorrow.”
(Arlington, VA – 8.19.2026) – The U.S. national debt has officially surpassed $40 trillion, a staggering milestone equal to nearly $117,000 for every person in America.
Concord Action Executive Director Dr. Carolyn Bourdeaux released the following statement:
“A $40 trillion national debt should stop Washington in its tracks. And we should call it what it is: intergenerational theft. Young Americans did not create this debt: they did not benefit from the tax cuts; they did not enjoy the generous payouts or programs; they did not support the wars or foreign interventions that have cost us trillions. But they will be expected to live with the consequences for the rest of their lives through higher borrowing costs, more pressure from inflation, fewer resources available for education, housing, infrastructure, defense and other priorities, and quite likely higher taxes as this country is forced to address the ballooning debt.
$40 trillion should be a wake up call. But neither Congress nor the President have a credible plan to stop it from growing. Every day that goes by makes the problem worse and more difficult to solve. At $40 trillion, the national debt now equals nearly $117,000 for every person in America. We owe the next generation better than this crushing debt and another hollow promise that someone else will deal with it later.
“Both parties helped bring us here, and both parties now have a responsibility to change course. Congress cannot pay lip service to this milestone today and then simply return to business as usual tomorrow.”
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About Concord Action
Concord Action is a national grassroots organization working to advance fiscal responsibility through education, advocacy and citizen engagement. The organization mobilizes Americans to urge lawmakers from both parties to address the national debt, pay for their priorities and put the federal budget on a sustainable path.
About Carolyn Bourdeaux
Dr. Carolyn Bourdeaux is the executive director of Concord Action and the Concord Coalition and a former member of Congress from Georgia. An expert in public finance, she previously directed the Georgia Senate Budget and Evaluation Office during the Great Recession and served in Congress from 2021 to 2023, where she worked on bipartisan budget reform, infrastructure, health care and small-business policy.
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