WASHINGTON, D.C. — The U.S. government's debt has exceeded the size of the entire U.S. economy. Congress and the Trump White House have taken no concrete action to change the fiscal trajectory.

The debt threshold was driven by gaps between government spending and revenue, an aging population, and Trump-era tax cuts. Both major political parties have not reformed Social Security, Medicaid, and other entitlement programs for decades.

The demographic shift behind the strain on federal entitlement programs has been decades in the making. Today there are about 2.7 workers for every Social Security beneficiary, compared with more than five workers for every Social Security beneficiary 65 years ago. The declining ratio of workers to beneficiaries has increased pressure on programs such as Social Security and Medicaid, which together represent a large share of federal spending. Spending on those programs has grown as the U.S. population has aged, widening the gap between government outlays and revenue. That gap is among the factors analysts cite in explaining why the national debt has now surpassed the total size of the U.S. economy.