The United States had a bad debt problem going into 2020 – and it got a lot worse.

As of August 2020, the public debt of the United States amounted to more than $26.72 trillion. More than $3 trillion of that debt was larded on since February, thanks to a rapid economic contraction due to the COVID-19 pandemic and substantial stimulus spending as Congress and the Treasury tried to keep the economy from going into a general meltdown.