Iowa Politics with Jeff Stein -- Wed. Oct. 21, 2026

One year?

$2 trillion.

I'm Jeff Stein with today's Iowa Politics Report.

The United States borrowed $2 trillion in the last fiscal year alone, including a whopping $27 billion just in the month of September.

That's according to the latest monthly Treasury statement issued by the Treasury Department and as reported by the Committee for a Responsible Budget.

Fiscal year 2026 had the largest deficit in our nation's history outside of a war or recession.

CRFB notes that in the same year in which we racked up another $2 trillion in borrowing, we also reached $40 trillion in gross national deficit.

We spent more than $1 trillion just on interest costs last year.

That's more than we spend on national defense.

And watched debt held by the public

has now grown to be as large as our entire economic output as a nation.

And yet, absolutely no action has been taken to address this issue.

All the government does is spend more, running us further into debt with rising interest rates on that debt.

And higher taxes is not the answer.

Tax the uber-rich all you want, and it's not going to make a dent.

If this sort of financial situation was presented by an individual or a family, their credit would immediately be shut off and they'd be shunned for failing to meet their obligations.

But not the federal government.

Those who run it apparently have no shame.

Earlier this year it was anticipated that we would reach that $40 trillion debt point around the time of the election.

Instead, due to higher interest and higher spending, we were there months ahead of schedule, with $41 trillion now in sight.

What's not in sight is any plan by politicians to actually make the tough choices necessary to fix it.

But don't worry, we can always print more money.

What could possibly go wrong with that plan?

And that's the Iowa Politics Report for Wednesday, October 21 on Twitter, Instagram, Gitter, Threads and Truth Social at Iowa Politics.

I'm Jeff Stein on News Talk 1540, KXEL.