Sep 30, 2025
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a stark warning for Americans.
“Congress is making America bankrupt,” he wrote in a June 3 post on X.
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The comment came as Musk reposted a chart from X account World of Statistics, showing U.S. budget deficits from 2000 to 2024 — and the numbers are sobering.
In fiscal 2000, the federal government posted a $236 billion surplus, followed by a $128 billion surplus in 2001. (The chart didn't distinguish between deficits and surpluses, but those two years were surpluses, according to Federal Reserve data.)
Unfortunately, that was the last time Washington ran a budget in the black.
By 2002, the U.S. had fallen into a $158 billion deficit — spending more than it collected in revenue. The gap only widened in the years that followed, reaching $1.29 trillion in 2010 and ballooning to $3.13 trillion in 2020.
For fiscal 2024, the U.S. government spent $6.75 trillion while taking in $4.92 trillion, resulting in a $1.83 trillion deficit.
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Musk has long criticized excess government spending, and he recently took aim at President Donald Trump’s signature budget bill.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote on X. “Shame on those who voted for it: You know you did wrong.”
He also warned that the bill could push the federal deficit to $2.5 trillion and saddle Americans with “crushingly unsustainable debt.”
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Tesla CEO Elon Musk has a stark warning for Americans.
Advertisement
“Congress is making America bankrupt,” he wrote in a June 3 post on X.
The comment came as Musk reposted a chart from X account World of Statistics, showing U.S. budget deficits from 2000 to 2024 — and the numbers are sobering.
In fiscal 2000, the federal government posted a $236 billion surplus, followed by a $128 billion surplus in 2001. (The chart didn't distinguish between deficits and surpluses, but those two years were surpluses, according to Federal Reserve data.)
Advertisement
Unfortunately, that was the last time Washington ran a budget in the black.
Since 2001, the federal government has run a budget deficit every year. Beginning in 2016, rising expenditures on Social Security, health care, and interest payments on the federal debt have outpaced revenue growth.
Between fiscal years 2019 and 2021, federal spending surged by roughly 50%. The national debt has now reached an unprecedented $36.99 trillion, according to Fiscal Data, a subsidiary of the Department of the Treasury.
Musk has long criticized excess government spending, and he recently took aim at President Donald Trump’s signature budget bill.
“This massive, outrageous, pork-filled Congressional spending bill is a disgusting abomination,” Musk wrote on X. “Shame on those who voted for it: You know you did wrong.”
He also warned that the bill could push the federal deficit to $2.5 trillion and saddle Americans with “crushingly unsustainable debt.”
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Jing is an investment reporter for MoneyWise. He is an avid advocate of investing for passive income. Despite the ups and downs he’s been through with the markets, Jing believes that you can generate a steadily increasing income stream by investing in high quality companies.
