Amid so many crises around the world, it’s easy to forget the scale of America’s debt problem. This year, the federal debt is set to cross 100 percent of GDP, not far behind the post-World War II high of 106 percent in 1946. Some in Washington believe that the only solution is to increase revenue by taxing Americans even more. Yet federal revenue, about 17 percent of GDP in 2025, is in line with the average for the last half-century. The best way to make the debt a smaller percentage of GDP is to increase GDP.

Source: Washington Post February 23, 2026 18:37 UTC