The U.S. government’s gross national debt has surpassed $37 trillion – a record high mark – according to a new report from the Treasury Department. The national debt has increased in recent years with Covid-relief measures used during the first Trump administration and Biden administration. The AP’s Fatima Hussein explains how the GOP’s sprawling tax and spending bill will only add to the tab:
The law is set to add $4.1 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates. … Wendy Edelberg, a senior fellow in Economic Studies at the Brookings Institution said Congress has a major role in setting in motion spending and revenue policy and the result of the Republicans’ tax law “means that we’re going to borrow a lot over the course of 2026, we’re going to borrow a lot over the course of 2027, and it’s just going to keep going.”
The debt will have consequences for U.S. taxpayers:
The Government Accountability Office outlines some of the impacts of rising government debt on Americans — including higher borrowing costs for things like mortgages and cars, lower wages from businesses having less money available to invest, and more expensive goods and services.
Environmental justice as a resilience strategy
Chronic pollution and other economic injustices that existed before Hurricane Katrina exacerbated the devastation and suffering that many New Orleans residents experienced when the storm roared ashore 20 years ago this month. A new report from the Brookings Institution and the Data Center elaborates:
This second disaster generated cascading risks as the violent storm and flooding destroyed industrial sites, spilled oil and other toxic waste into floodwaters, subjected many communities to dangerous pollutants during cleanups, and led to lengthy delays and bureaucratic bungles in disaster relief that, in some cases, dragged on for years. Yet despite these environmental impacts, addressing pollution across the city was not a focus for policymakers after Hurricane Katrina.
Manann Donoghoe, the report’s author, provides a better path forward:
We need new policies to link environmental justice and resilience. Neighborhoods that have been historically marginalized across metropolitan New Orleans, rather than being disproportionately vulnerable, could instead drive innovation that helps propel the region toward greater levels of resilience. Removing the pollutants that plague neighborhoods can create positive feedback loops that generate impacts outside of health, including helping to increase property values and attracting investments that can create jobs and support business growth.
Public health departments fear federal cuts
President Donald Trump’s proposed budget for the 2026 fiscal year aims to slash funding for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by more than half. As Stateline’s Shalina Chatlani explains, these cuts could filter down to the state level, where public health departments rely heavily on federal funds:
“Local public health is on the front lines preventing communicable disease, operating programs to prevent chronic disease, ensuring our septic and well water systems are safe,” said Dr. Kelly Kimple, acting director of North Carolina’s Division of Public Health within the Department of Health and Human Services. “I’m very concerned,” Kimple said, “especially given the magnitude of funding that we’re talking about, as we can’t keep doing more with less.”
Working past retirement age
The population of Americans age 65 and older increased by nearly one-third over the last decade. Pew’s Jennifer Clendening and Jun Ho Phue explain how elderly households are experiencing financial hardship in a new study that focused on 18 metropolitan areas:
In all 18 of these cities, an average of 16.5% of older residents lived below the poverty level, and an additional 10.1% had incomes ranging from 100% to 149% of the poverty level, referred to in a June 2025 Pew report as “low income”—a substantially higher figure than the national rate of 11.3% of older Americans living in poverty and an additional 8.2% with low incomes.
More people, whether by choice or necessity, are working past retirement age:
Pew’s analysis of census data showed that the labor force participation rate for older residents increased by 2 percentage points nationwide from 2013 to 2023 (from 17.2% to 19.2%), while comparison cities saw a 3.4 percentage-point increase (from 17.3% to 20.7%).
Number of the Day
$3.79 – Cost of a modestly priced meal in Orleans Parish in the last quarter of 2024, 34% more than the maximum benefit from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. (Source: Urban Institute)