Public Finance: Taxes, Budgets & Debt
How the American government raises $5.4 trillion, spends $7.4 trillion, borrows the difference, and owes $40 trillion: where the money goes and where it comes from, who pays, the process that produced three shutdowns in a year, the Treasury market that funds the gap, Social Security's and Medicare's dates and every option with its number, the 2025 law, interest and the Fed, the states, the world's other debtors, the long run, and the menu of what would fix it. Written as of October 2026, after a $1.99 trillion deficit in fiscal 2026, with interest on the debt above defense, the ten-year yield above 5%, and the government funded by a stopgap to December 11. Where the field argues, from whether the rich pay their share and how Social Security's gap should be closed to whether Medicaid should require work, whether the 2025 law is worth what it costs, whether fiscal dominance is coming, and whether the debt matters, each side makes its case before the evidence. Opens with a market snapshot from one day's close, and its four worked examples run on October's numbers: one federal dollar in 1966 and 2026, the interest bill under three rate paths, the debt arithmetic for three countries, and closing the gap three ways.