United States | News & Politics

Head of U.S. rates strategy at TD Securities, Gennadiy Goldberg, said that the crux of the $37 trillion problem is that no one knows at what level the debt becomes unsustainable. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent acknowledged that the U.S. government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Goldberg agrees with Bessent’s argument but states that the U.S. also does not tax much compared to both the size of the country’s GDP and government outlays. He believes that either taxes have to go up, spending has to come down, or some combination of the two, but warned that it’s very complicated to figure out.

The White House said on June 7 that the GOP tax bill significantly improves the country’s fiscal trajectory by including $1.7 trillion in mandatory savings, while Trump’s tax cuts will spur economic growth. Democrats have pointed to analyses showing the bill’s tax cuts will benefit wealthier Americans far more than low- and middle-income workers while also adding to the national debt.