$31.27 Trillion

The sum of public debt reached $31.27 trillion at the end of April, eclipsing the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the United States for the first time since World War II. During that time period, government spending on the war effort drove the increase in national debt, but recent trends are driven by a combination of tax cuts, interest payments and an aging population putting stress on programs such as Medicare and Social Security. Currently, about 33 cents of every income tax dollar collected goes to pay interest in our national debt, leaving less room for important priorities like defense, infrastructure and public safety. 

The debt is projected to grow, as according to the Wall Street Journal, the U.S. Government spends $1.33 for every dollar of revenue. The Government Accountability Office estimates that by 2027, unless current revenue and spending policies change, the debt will reach a historical high of 106% of GDP and will reach 200% of GDP by 2047. 

Growth in the federal government debt can impact Nebraskans in a number of ways. The state receives approximately $7 billion annually, about $5.3 billion of which goes to the Department of Health and Human Services. An increased share of federal funds being directed to debt service could tie up money that may otherwise be directed to the states. Additionally, national debt is a powerful economic influencer, causing upward pressure on interest rates, impacting availability of home ownership and other lending. It can also impact pricing of everyday goods and services as well as wage stagnation due to a lowered investment in corporate infrastructure. 

$4.07

Soaring fuel prices have impacted everything from summer travel to spring planting in Nebraska, reaching a statewide average of $4.07 per gallon this week. Counties like Sherman and Frontier in heavily farmed areas of the state average $4.69, according to AAA. Many economists project that the national average price per gallon could reach a new all-time high if the conflict in Iran doesn’t resolve soon, reopening the Strait of Hormuz. 

These price increases for fuel come at the same time as new disclosures by major oil and gas companies required by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to break down their tax payments by jurisdiction. This new dataset, analyzed by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, paints a stark picture of how the U.S. tax code encourages tax avoidance and allows the oil and gas industry to pay lower taxes domestically than they do abroad. According to the FACT Coalition, a corporate taxation watchdog, the U.S. tax code provides approximately $35 billion in tax preferences for domestic fossil fuels. Additionally, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act added approximately $20 billion in additional tax breaks for entities like ExxonMobil and Chevron. For perspective, if you were to use the total sum of federal tax incentives to purchase gas, it would buy nearly 13 billion gallons at the current national average. That would be enough to fuel every vehicle in Nebraska for approximately 95 years, based on current annual usage data.

$20,000

According to a recently-released report by the United States Department of Education, nationwide, states spent an average of $20,000 to educate a student in public schools. This compares to Nebraska’s approximately $18,500 investment per student in the 2022-2023 school year, the most recent year for which data was included in the report. 

Of the $20,000 national average, approximately 88% went directly to costs related to instruction, including salaries, benefits and supplies. An additional 10% was spent on capital outlay, including school buildings and deferred maintenance. An additional 2% was interest on school debt. This tracks fairly closely with the breakdown of Nebraska’s educational expenditures.

The report also tracked public school enrollment changes between the start of the 2014 school year and the fall of 2024, where Nebraska showed a 6% increase. This is in contrast to nearly every surrounding state. South Dakota also saw a 6% increase, but decreases in enrollment occurred in Wyoming (-4%), Colorado (-3%), Kansas (-3%), Missouri (-3%), and Iowa, which showed flat enrollment growth over the 10-year span. 

Data such as this can be useful to policymakers as they project future education investments, but the report has been limited significantly by recent layoffs at the Institute of Education Sciences—the Education Department division that oversees the statistics gathering and research efforts—which lost about 90% of its staff.