How The U.S. Racked Up Its $40 Trillion Debt

How The U.S. Racked Up Its $40 Trillion Debt

August 25, 2026 · 1h 21m

About this episode

The episode discusses the U.S. crossing the $40 trillion debt threshold and explores various perspectives on addressing it.

Steve Hayes is joined by Jonah Goldberg, Kevin Williamson, and Mike Warren to discuss the U.S. crossing the $40 trillion debt threshold and the prospect of “growing our way out of it.” The Agenda: —Kevin explains how we got here —Entitlement spending —What would Paul Ryan do —The DOGE effort —Growing our way out of debt —NWYT: Adulthood disappointments Show notes: —Kevin's Wanderland —Kevin on the tragedy of U.S. debt —Steve Hayes on DOGE —"DOGE—the UNIPARTY killed it because it was working too well." The Dispatch Podcast is a production of ⁠The Dispatch⁠, a digital media company covering politics, policy, and culture from a nonpartisan perspective. To access all of The Dispatch’s offerings—including audio versions of all our articles and newsletters—⁠click here⁠. If you’d like to remove all ads from your podcast experience, consider becoming a premium Dispatch member ⁠by clicking here⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

People in this episode

Host: Steve Hayes

Guests: Jonah Goldberg, Kevin Williamson, Mike Warren

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Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: The Dispatch, DOGE

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