Verdict with Ted Cruz - August 20, 2026


BONUS POD： Heads in the Sand—The Unsustainable Numbers behind America’s $40 Trill Debt


Episode Stats


Length

17 minutes

Words per minute

151.35

Word count

2,677

Sentence count

211

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 This is an iHeart Podcast.
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00:00:35.120 Hey, I'm Jack Armstrong.
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00:00:55.060 The national debt is now larger than the U.S. economy.
00:00:57.700 It exceeds 100 percent of GDP. We're going towards a record here. What risk does that pose?
00:01:05.500 Well, no one knows how big is the danger zone and when it's going to actually trigger some kind of a crisis.
00:01:11.120 If you look, I know you know this, if you look at the CBO's forecast for where the debt is going, it's absolutely headed to an unsustainable level.
00:01:17.980 Ultimately, this is the job of our fiscal policymakers, Congress and the executive branch to come together and put us on a on a sound fiscal trajectory,
00:01:26.180 which we're not on right now. I don't see an immediate crisis brewing, but at some point,
00:01:31.240 it's going to be a problem. And ultimately, our political system needs to address it.
00:01:35.260 You're listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:01:38.940 Good Thursday morning. Nice to have you with us in the 47 Morning Update. And we've got one,
00:01:43.280 well, scary story for you. The U.S. national debt has officially topped $40 trillion,
00:01:52.380 Roughly 100% of the gross domestic product and a level that was last seen during World War II.
00:02:00.520 The nation's outstanding public debt not only surpassed the $40 trillion,
00:02:05.420 but it will reach even higher by the end of the year.
00:02:09.080 So is there anyone trying to stop this?
00:02:11.820 We're going to break it down for you.
00:02:13.420 But before we get to that, it feels like our country finally has momentum again.
00:02:18.060 with our leaders fighting to restore common sense and America first.
00:02:22.640 Now, we've seen this before.
00:02:24.700 Conservatives get comfortable, and the left starts taking back ground inch by inch,
00:02:29.060 and we're seeing it now with the Democratic Socialists of America.
00:02:32.260 We cannot let this happen in the midterms.
00:02:35.160 America needs every one of us in the fight,
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00:03:49.400 It's the 47 Morning Update and it starts right now.
00:03:52.420 Story number one.
00:03:53.580 We're going to start with a story that should make every American really angry.
00:03:58.900 A story of the federal government not, and this includes Republicans, living within our means.
00:04:07.060 This is the government destroying the future of this country for our children and our grandchildren.
00:04:13.820 The United States of America has just crossed a number that almost doesn't sound real and most Americans cannot comprehend it.
00:04:24.220 It's a number that doesn't even make sense because our minds can't understand the amount of debt we're talking about.
00:04:32.320 Forty trillion dollars.
00:04:35.820 Now, that is roughly the size of America's gross national debt.
00:04:41.140 According to the Treasury Department, the total public debt outstanding has officially surpassed the $40 trillion for the first time in history.
00:04:48.540 The Wall Street Journal reported today that the milestone has now been not only crossed, but it's going to continue to go up.
00:04:57.020 And the portion economists generally compare with the economy is around the size of the entire U.S. gross domestic product.
00:05:04.300 Now, if you think about what that means, America is now carrying a debt burden relative to the economy that we haven't experienced since the aftermath of World War II.
00:05:16.540 Except this one is enormously different.
00:05:20.360 In 1946, to put this in perspective, America had just finished fighting a global war, not on one front, but two fronts.
00:05:29.680 We had mobilized millions and millions of Americans.
00:05:32.820 We had built an enormous military.
00:05:35.800 We'd manufactured thousands of ships and aircraft.
00:05:39.960 And then we did what no other country could do.
00:05:42.960 We defeated the Nazis and the Japanese and saved, well, the free world. 0.76
00:05:49.320 So today, you put that in comparison. 0.67
00:05:52.600 Well, we haven't come out of emerging from a World War III.
00:05:56.600 The Congressional Budget Office, however, is saying our spending is even worse than then.
00:06:01.700 The budget office projects that debt held by the public will equal 101% of GDP in 2026, meaning more in debt than we actually did in our economy.
00:06:14.580 That is insane.
00:06:16.120 Now, the previous record was about 106% immediately after World War II.
00:06:20.240 And the Congressional Budget Office says we're on track to blow straight through that record
00:06:25.360 and reach 120% of GDP by 2035 in just nine years.
00:06:32.300 And here's the part that should terrify you as a taxpayer.
00:06:36.820 I don't care if you're a Republican or a Democrat or an Independent.
00:06:40.640 We aren't borrowing the money because America doesn't collect enough money
00:06:44.620 to operate a massive government of historical size.
00:06:48.200 were spending extraordinary amounts of money because apparently that's just what Washington
00:06:53.520 thought would be fun for them and kicking the can down the road. The Congressional Budget
00:06:59.520 Office expects that Washington will spend approximately $7.4 trillion this year while
00:07:07.240 collecting $5.6 trillion in revenue. Let's just be clear, $5.6 trillion is more than enough to run
00:07:14.400 a government. So that means that we have a deficit of $1.9 trillion in one year alone,
00:07:20.880 almost $2 trillion. Now, the Republicans, to be clear, are in charge right now. And many
00:07:26.480 Republicans don't seem to care about what's happening. Now, to put it another way, the
00:07:31.280 Wall Street Journal calculated earlier this year that for every dollar Washington collects in taxes
00:07:38.300 and tariffs, it is spending $1.33. So let's make this more palatable for all of us in our minds.
00:07:48.120 Imagine you're running your household like this. You're making $100,000 a year. Then every year
00:07:54.620 you spend $133,000. What do you do to come up with the extra $33,000? You borrow the difference.
00:08:01.500 Then next year you do it again. And the next year again. And the next year again. And then
00:08:07.780 eventually your problem isn't simply what you're buying your problem then becomes the interest on
00:08:13.760 everything you already bought and that is where america is right now the interest bill may be the
00:08:20.440 most shocking number in this entire story the congressional budget office is now projecting
00:08:26.320 that the federal government will spend one trillion on net interest in 2026 alone to cover
00:08:35.180 what we have borrowed so far again a trillion dollars a year our u.s government needs just to
00:08:41.500 cover the interest payments on the money we borrowed now not paying down the debt not fixing
00:08:47.740 the highways not securing the border not buying fighter jets not funding schools not sending
00:08:53.140 social security checks out just on interest something that doesn't actually help anybody
00:08:59.140 in this country at all unless you're one of the institutions that's buying up the government's
00:09:03.620 debt. Now, $1 trillion essentially for the privilege of servicing money Washington has
00:09:09.560 borrowed. That's one hell of a deal for those that are lending out the money. And the CBO also
00:09:15.940 projects annual net interest costs could climb to more than $2.1 trillion by 2036, meaning every
00:09:23.940 year they need $2.1 trillion just to cover the debt. Now, let's break $1 trillion in annual
00:09:32.600 interest down. What does that mean? It means that every day our government is having to write a
00:09:38.540 check for $2.74 billion every day. That means every hour, 24 hours a day, the U.S. government
00:09:47.320 is having to come up with $114 million just to cover the interest. Yeah, you heard me right.
00:09:54.580 America 24-7 is spending $114 million every hour just to cover our debt.
00:10:03.020 If you want to put it into even a more understandable way for our minds, how about this?
00:10:10.220 Do you know every 30 seconds, every minute, how much money we have to come up with to
00:10:15.480 cover our debt in the United States of America and our government right now?
00:10:18.480 1.9 million every 30 seconds is how much it costs us the taxpayers not to run our government
00:10:27.360 just to fund the interest on borrowing the money now if you want to break it down even more to
00:10:34.840 make you even more angry and again i don't care if you're a democrat republican you should be
00:10:38.260 livid right now that means roughly every second the federal government is having to borrow
00:10:44.680 So $31,700 every second, $1.9 million every minute, $114 million every hour, and $2.74
00:10:54.820 billion every day just to cover our interest.
00:10:59.680 Now, every second you're listening to this story, imagine another $31,000 going out the
00:11:04.700 door just to service the federal debt.
00:11:06.980 Count five seconds.
00:11:08.760 One, two, three, four, five.
00:11:13.020 You know what that cost us in debt?
00:11:15.160 Just the interest, $158,000 in 10 seconds.
00:11:19.700 That's more than $317,000.
00:11:22.800 And we haven't paid off one penny of the principal,
00:11:26.940 the amount of money we borrowed,
00:11:28.720 with any of the money that I just mentioned.
00:11:31.360 Now, that is what makes all this so dangerous.
00:11:34.700 Another way to understand $40 trillion in debt is this way.
00:11:38.660 Just take America's roughly 340 million residents, all right?
00:11:43.140 That's where we are with our population, all right?
00:11:46.640 And then if you wanted to take just the interest that we owe, that's $40 trillion, what would
00:11:52.660 that mean for every American if they got a check?
00:11:56.580 The national debt works out to roughly $117,000 for every man, woman, and child in America.
00:12:04.040 So right now, the national debt is at $117,000 for every man, woman, and child.
00:12:10.600 if we just didn't have that debt we could write a check to every single person in this country that
00:12:17.500 is a citizen for that amount of money now if you want to know how much money we're talking about
00:12:23.860 here for a family of four the national debt works out to roughly four hundred and seventy thousand
00:12:30.880 dollars that you could write a check to a family of four for if we just didn't have to pay the debt
00:12:36.660 on the $40 trillion that we are in debt right now.
00:12:41.380 Now, obviously, the government isn't going to mail your family
00:12:44.200 a $470,000 invoice tomorrow morning,
00:12:47.040 but that's the scale of the liability that is being carried by this country.
00:12:52.260 Now, if you look at taxpayers, because not every person pays taxes,
00:12:57.120 then it's a lot worse than what I just described.
00:12:59.700 The IRS processed more than 165 million individual income tax returns in 2025.
00:13:06.660 Now, if you simply divide $40 trillion by those $165 million returns as illustrated on the burden of, well, where you would be,
00:13:17.060 that means that every taxpayer in America would have to write a check to get our debt to zero for one one-thousandth of a second.
00:13:25.180 You would have to write a check for $242,000 right now.
00:13:28.980 But immediately, you would still owe more money.
00:13:31.520 Because why? Government is spending about 33 cents more per dollar than we're bringing in.
00:13:37.800 Every dollar they get, they spend $1.33.
00:13:40.820 And again, that's not a literal bill that goes out to you.
00:13:46.080 Married couples, by the way, can file jointly.
00:13:49.100 Some federal taxpayers, well, they file individual returns.
00:13:52.880 And federal debt isn't allocated that way.
00:13:55.860 But it gives you an idea of the magnitude of the problem.
00:13:59.720 $117,000 is what every breathing American would have to write a check for to get our debt to zero.
00:14:05.740 And a lot of people don't pay taxes.
00:14:08.660 That's why it skyrockets to $242,000 per individual income tax return.
00:14:15.080 And Washington, by the way, is still adding to the tab.
00:14:17.740 By the end of the fiscal year 2000, for example, America's gross federal debt was $6.5 trillion.
00:14:25.020 You fast forward 10 years later, it was at $13.5 trillion.
00:14:31.380 In 10 years after that, in 2020, the number skyrocketed to $26.9 trillion.
00:14:38.120 And by the end of the fiscal year 2025, it was $37.4 trillion.
00:14:44.540 Well, now we're in August and the number has hit $40 trillion.
00:14:48.460 That means America's debt has increased by more than seven-fold since 2000.
00:14:56.500 And according to reporting on the latest numbers, the debt increased by roughly $3 trillion over the past year alone, about $7.9 billion each and every day.
00:15:06.760 So let that number sink in.
00:15:08.180 We're adding debt at a pace of roughly $329 million an hour, $5.5 million a minute, more
00:15:16.360 than $91,000 every second.
00:15:18.920 So just to go back and put it in perspective in a different way, just during this story
00:15:24.820 alone that you've been listening to, the national debt has increased by $38 million.
00:15:30.940 And there's an important distinction here about this.
00:15:34.360 The $40 trillion figure is gross federal debt.
00:15:37.400 It includes debt held by the public, plus money the government owes to its own accounts.
00:15:43.460 And according to the current figures reported by Reuters,
00:15:47.120 there's approximately $32.3 trillion in public-held treasury debt
00:15:51.060 and another roughly $7.8 trillion in intra-governmental holdings.
00:15:56.220 Economists generally focus on the publicly-held debt when comparing the debt to the GDP.
00:16:02.140 And even by the narrow measurement, we're around 100% of the entire U.S. economy.
00:16:09.080 This is why I bring up this issue.
00:16:11.360 You can blame COVID.
00:16:12.780 You can say it was the Trump tax cuts that were the best we've ever seen that somehow
00:16:17.460 put us in this situation.
00:16:19.200 I actually think it's none of those things.
00:16:21.620 What I do think it is, is clearly this.
00:16:24.180 Our government has figured it out that they can spend as much money as they want to, and
00:16:29.320 no one is going to stop them and that includes both sides of the aisle and what they're doing
00:16:34.980 is destroying this country with debt at a level that no one could ever imagine and they're doing
00:16:41.720 it because so many americans are asleep at the will so many americans are sitting here and have
00:16:48.840 no clue about what i just told you so i hope you'll share it wherever you can on social media
00:16:54.420 Thank you for listening to the 47 Morning Update with Ben Ferguson.
00:16:58.660 Please make sure you hit subscribe wherever you're listening to this podcast right now.
00:17:04.040 And for more in-depth news, also subscribe to the Ben Ferguson Podcast, and we will see you back here tomorrow.
00:17:24.420 and Getty. We try to bring you the truth. And help you
00:17:26.480 figure out this crazy modern world.
00:17:28.440 How about something about a comedic tone?
00:17:32.920 We have a winner.
00:17:34.440 Yes. Listen to Armstrong and Getty
00:17:36.560 on demand on the iHeartRadio app,
00:17:38.560 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get
00:17:40.540 your podcasts.