Before COVID, the federal government spent an average of $4 trillion a year. Since 2020, that number has jumped to $6.5 trillion – and it has never come back down. The gap between what we spend and what we take in is now nearly $2 trillion a year, and the interest alone on that borrowing is one of the fastest-growing items in the entire budget.

Some of the increase was COVID emergency spending. But $512 billion in new spending above pre-pandemic projections is now permanently baked in – spread across Medicaid, veterans' programs, income security, and more. The pandemic unlocked a new level of federal spending. Most of it never went away.