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Deficit

Spending minus revenue during a period, usually one fiscal year.

Debt held by the public

Treasury securities held outside federal government accounts. CBO favors this measure for analyzing economic effects.

Gross federal debt

Debt held by the public plus Treasury securities held by federal trust funds and other government accounts. It is larger than debt held by the public.

Dollar values are nominal unless noted. Comparisons use federal fiscal years and CBO’s February 2026 current-law baseline. Figures are rounded for readability, so components may not sum precisely.

Forecasts change with legislation, markets, interest rates, inflation, court decisions, and technical updates. A current-law baseline is a reference path, not a prediction of political behavior. The site deliberately avoids a single “collapse date,” per-capita gimmicks, and comparisons that mix debt measures.

Editorial rule: lead with official or independent government sources; distinguish current data from projections; display the source date; explain uncertainty; correct material errors transparently.

After you choose to make the hosted preview public, connect the GoDaddy domain with these steps. The exact DNS values will appear in the hosting dashboard when the custom domain is added.

1. In the site’s hosting settings, add fiscalmeltdown.com as a custom domain. Also add www.fiscalmeltdown.com and redirect it to the root domain.
2. In GoDaddy, open My Products → Domains → fiscalmeltdown.com → DNS.
3. Replace only the conflicting web records with the CNAME or A records shown by the hosting service. Keep mail-related MX and TXT records unchanged.
4. Save, then wait for DNS and the security certificate to verify. This often takes minutes but can take up to 48 hours.
5. Confirm both the root and www addresses load securely, then set the root domain as canonical.

Important: Do not change the domain’s nameservers unless the hosting dashboard explicitly requires it. DNS record changes are normally sufficient.