George Kamel - The Government Is Now Accepting Your Venmo Donations

Episode Date: September 22, 2025

Just when you thought 2025 couldn’t get any weirder, this happened: You can now Venmo the government to help pay down the national debt. Today, we’re breaking down this absolute circus, who’sreally benefiting from this scheme, and why a donation to Uncle Sam might be the worst financial decision you could make this year.   Next Steps: • 🎥 Watch my video The Truth About Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” (How It Affects Your Wallet) • 💵 Start your free budget today. Download the EveryDollar app! • 📈 Are you on track with the Baby Steps? Get a free personalized plan.   Connect With Our Sponsors: • Get 20% off when you join DeleteMe. • Get up to 40% off Cozy Earth with code GEORGE. • Go to FAIRWINDS Credit Union for an exclusive account bundle!   Explore More From Ramsey Network: 🎙️ The Ramsey Show 🍸 Smart Money Happy Hour 💸 The Ramsey Show Highlights 🧠 The Dr. John Delony Show 💡 The Rachel Cruze Show 🪑 Front Row Seat with Ken Coleman 📈 EntreLeadership   Ramsey Solutions Privacy Policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Just when you thought 2025 couldn't get any weirder, this happened. You can now Venmo the government to help pay down the national debt, which reminds me of Kennedy's famous words. Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can Venmo for your country. You can also ask for the last four digits of your country's phone number to verify it's the correct country. So are people really doing this?

And could it actually help us reduce the national debt? You might be surprised. Today, we're going to break down this absolute circus. who's really benefiting from this scheme and why a donation to Uncle Sam might be the worst financial decision you make this year. Yes, even worse than buying a Labibu. Okay, so here's what's happening. Earlier this year, the U.S. Treasury Department quietly added Venmo and PayPal as payment options to their gifts to reduce the public debt program. So you can literally go to pay.gov right now and send the government money to help pay down our $37.2 trillion national debt at the time of this recording.

gone up by the time you watch this. But here's the thing. This isn't actually new. You've been able to donate to reduce the national debt for a long time. In fact, the Treasury has had this program in place since 1996. The only new part is that you can now do it

through the same app you use to pay back your friend for the, whatever this is. Magic wand and mushroom emoji? What do the kids? Go back to Tide pods. Simpler times. Don't eat Tidepods. Don't drink bleach.

And never inject. disinfectants into your body. So, are people actually doing this? Just voluntarily throwing money into the black hole of government spending? Well, I'll tell you. But first, what even is the national debt? Well, it's pretty much what it sounds like. It's the total amount of money we owe as a country.

And it's currently sitting at a cool $37.2 trillion with a T. And now it's $37.26. Okay. So who do we owe all this money to? Great question. And the answer is, whoever bought treasury bonds? You see, the U.S. government sells treasury bonds to raise money for things like infrastructure, defense, and paying off other debts.

So they're basically an IOU from Uncle Sam. You give the government your money now, and in return, they promise to pay you back later with a little bit of interest. So currently, about 25% of our debt is owed to foreign countries. And the rest, we basically owe to ourselves. Because a bunch of individual people and major institutions in America own treasury bonds, places like the Social Security Trust Fund, pension plans, big banks, and insurance companies. Now, you may have heard people talk about the national deficit, which is different from the national debt, but they are closely related.

The deficit is how much we're adding to our debt each year. Essentially, how much more money the government spends versus how much it takes in. And right now, we are running annual deficits over $1 trillion. Yeah, you heard that right. Let's go back. We are spending $1 trillion more than we take in every single year. And a trillion is a thousand billions. Man, that is a lot of guacamole, a lot of the green. And to put that in perspective, that is more than most countries' entire economies.

And according to the Congressional Budget Office, Trump's one big beautiful bill is projected to add another $3.4 trillion to the deficit over the next decade. So naturally, the solution? Everyone Venmo the government a few bucks. Let's pitch in, baby. Come on. So back to our question. Are people actually doing this?

I mean, other than YouTubers like me sarcastically trying to prove a point. Unfortunately, yes. According to reports, this decades-old program has now raised over $67 million since it started. And I just want to know, who are these people? Why are they doing this? What has gotten into you? Where you're like, you know what? I'm just bored. I haven't paid enough in taxes.

Let me go ahead and drop another one in the bucket there. The government making you pay taxes and then asking you to voluntarily donate more money is like someone punching you in the face and then turning around an iPad to ask for a tip. Look, this is just not a smart use of your money. And here's why. The national debt is so massive that your $5 or $10 donation is not going to move the needle at all, even at scale. It's a teeny tiny drop in a bucket that is the size of your mom. You know what?

I told myself, I'm done with these jokes. They're juvenile. Unlike your mom. Dang it. Get it again. That is so childish. I mean, do you know how much each American would have to Venmo the government to wipe out the national debt? Well, I do.

Because we did the math. We could eliminate the entire national. debt if all 330 million Americans donated $113,000 each. That's right. You just need to casually donate more than most people make in two years. It's not that hard, guys. Pull yourself up at the bootstraps and get a job. Now, that's obviously not going to happen.

But here's a slightly more realistic hypothetical scenario. If every American donated $10, we'd raise about $3.3 billion. Now, that sounds like a lot of money, and it is if you're a normal human. But the federal government spent $6.9 trillion in fiscal year, That's about $787 million per hour. So our collective $3.3 billion donation would pay for about 4.2 hours of government spending. Four hours.

So this whole donating to the debt thing is barely benefiting the government, and it's definitely not benefiting you, at least not in any tangible way. But believe you me, there is someone who is benefiting from all of this. And I'll tell you who that is. But first, I want to tell you about my bed sheets, because they are insanely comfortable. I got them from Cozy Earth, a sponsor of

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And if you're wondering what to do with the money you were thinking about donating to the government, here's an idea. Use it to help protect yourself from spammers and scammers. And the way I do that is with DeleteMe, another sponsor of today's video. Because it seems like every other day there's a new scam, a new data leak,

but Delete Me helps cut the risk by removing your info from hundreds of these data broker websites. And here's the cool part. If you're a Delete Me subscriber and you find your info on some random website, you can submit a custom removal request, and their data privacy experts will get to work on taking it down. With my special link, you get a discounted annual plan

that comes out to about $9 bucks a month. So to get the deal, go to join deleteme.com slash George or use the link in the description. Okay, back to the matter at hand. Who is really benefiting from this whole donate to the debt charade? With a real winner here is Venmo and their parent company, PayPal. Bet you didn't know that, did you? They are putting themselves between U.S. citizens and the government

collecting transaction fees and data. How convenient. And in case you were wondering, yes, they do have lobbyists. PayPal spent over $1.6 million on lobbying in 2024 alone. It's funny how that works, that whole lobbying thing. Maybe this will help. I really don't think I should. Yeah, you still don't think so.

So if all of this is a waste of time and money, what should we do about the national debt? Well, here's an idea. Instead of asking U.S. citizens to voluntarily pay it down, how about this? Go with me here. Donald Trump jumps on cameo with all proceeds going to pay down the national debt. This could work, guys.

Who wouldn't want a cameo video from the guy who did a cameo in Home Alone 2 lost to New York? But the bottom line here is this. Do not waste your money trying to help pay down the national debt. If you've got a generous spirit, give to things that can actually do good with that money, unlike the government. And maybe you've got some debt to pay off. Let's focus on that first. That's going to do way more good,

because when you don't have debt payments, you'll stop throwing away money on interest payments, which will free up cash for things like giving, saving, and investment. And that will make a huge difference in your life, and it can change your whole family tree. And if you're already debt-free, your money would be so much better spent giving to actual charities that help people directly. Or use it to invest for the future so later you can be even more generous. But look, it's not your job to pay for the poor financial decisions of your lawmakers.

Now, by all means, give them a call. Tell them to stop making terrible decisions. And go ahead and make a mental note to vote for someone else next time if you're not happy with the people in charge. But other than that, there's not much you can do or should do about the national deficit. Focus on what you can control, which is your house and your money. Build wealth, even if the government continues to go deeper and deeper into debt. As Stephen Covey says in the seven habits of highly effective people,

you need to focus on your circle of influence, aka the things you can actually impact, instead of wasting energy on the circle of concern, which is things like the national debt. Now, that said, there are plenty of things in the recent spending bill that will directly affect your personal finances, including your taxes, your health care costs, and your investment accounts. And that bill may be big, but it's not going to be beautiful.

for everyone. So if you want to see a detailed breakdown of Trump's one big beautiful bill and what it means for your wallet, just click right here to watch the video where I break it down or use the link in the description. Don't forget to like and subscribe and share this video with your congressperson. They won't care. And that's the problem. Thanks for watching. We'll see you next time.