Advocates called on lawmakers to redesign the United States’ tax system on Thursday in order to address the rising national debt.
The national debt surpassed $39 trillion in March 2026, the highest ever recorded in United States history.
A group of financial advocates spoke to members of the U.S. House Oversight Committee in a roundtable on Thursday about ways to reduce the national debt.
Joshua Rauh, a senior economics fellow at the Hoover Institution, said the federal government’s biggest drivers in spending are Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
He said those three programs accounted for 49% of $7 trillion the government spent in fiscal year 2025. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that figure will rise to 58% by 2035.
