U.S. gross national debt crossed $39 trillion in mid-March, and debt held by the public stood at over $31 trillion. With the Congressional Budget Office projecting a $1.9 trillion deficit in fiscal 2026 and public debt rising to $56 trillion by 2036, Sen. Cynthia Lummis is pitching the proposed BITCOIN Act to have the Treasury acquire up to 1 million bitcoin over five years.
Key Takeaways
U.S. gross debt hit $39T by mid-March, while the CBO projects a $1.9T FY2026 deficit.Sen. Lummis’s BITCOIN Act aims for 1M BTC over 5 years, but no official purchases are confirmed.CRFB’s Maya MacGuineas warns debt is unsustainable, with $40T possible by September 2026.There’s another lens economists prefer: debt held by the public, which CRFB pegged at over $31 trillion at the time. On May 2, 2026, NPR reported that this measure had exceeded U.S. GDP for the first time since just after World War II, outside the pandemic period, a psychological line even if markets have lived with deficits for years.
The longer arc looks worse on paper. The Congressional Budget Office’s February 2026 outlook projected the federal deficit would reach $1.9 trillion in fiscal 2026 and grow to $3.1 trillion by 2036, with cumulative borrowing pushing public debt to $56 trillion, or 120% of GDP, by then.
The Bitcoin pitch hits Capitol Hill Global debt, crypto pricing, and the unanswered question
