美国公共债务首破40万亿美元，财政部拟加倍回购长债

The Treasury Secretary, Scott Bensent, taking action to lower long term government bond yields as the US debt pile tops $40 trillion for the first time, the Treasury saying it would at least double its planned buybacks of 10 to 30 year debt. Politics. Todd Kendall joins us now from Washington for Mark in Montana. Hey, John. Good morning. While all of this is becoming a politically fraught issue as finance and courts feed through to the broader economy.

Now, we've heard the Treasury Secretary, Scott Benson, previously talk openly about the idea that he wants to a lower bond yields in a bid to lower mortgage rates and other borrowing costs. But that hasn't gone as planned, in part because the U.S. government continues to run large deficits regardless of what the department does with its repurchases. And in part, that is because at the moment it is pretty difficult here in Washington.

That's the reality when it comes to cutting spending, especially during an election year. If we dig in to some of that Treasury Department data that was released just yesterday showing that public debt surpassed $40 trillion, that includes the record budget deficit from July, which was fueled by a surge in health care costs and Social security. And that interest on the federal debt continues to be a key driver. Last month, there was a 15% increase in debt servicing costs year to date.

John, if further adds to the pressure as Republicans are trying to figure out their economic messaging getting closer to November, and that's now prompted the white House, though, to float potentially new tax cuts as it keeps asking for an increase in defense spending.