The National Debt Crisis

There are a lot of important issues that need to be addressed during this election cycle, but none is more important than the exploding national debt. The bad news is that the Trump Administration added over $8 billion to the national debt and the Biden/Harris Administration have added over $6 billion to the debt so far and they are not done yet. The further bad news is both Trump and Harris do not even acknowledge the crisis. They are both instead pandering to voters by promising to spend even more money on the federal government's credit card. The end result will be even more debt that will need to be paid by my grandkids and their grandkids. This behavior is not only totally unfair to future generations, but also insulting to the American public and dangerous for our country.

It is insulting to the public because Americans are strong enough to recognize the truth and wise enough to respond. The truth is that there is still time to address the debt crisis and there are solutions. To get that done, however, our national leaders must be honest with us. We all know that every family needs to balance its budget. You cannot continue to spend beyond your means indefinitely without catastrophic consequences. The same is true for the United States government. Unfortunately, too many people are too busy managing their own lives to pay serious attention to this growing danger and we can no longer rely on our leaders to protect us. As a result, we need to spread the word ourselves and demand that our leaders do their job.

The growing debt is dangerous because it may be the biggest national security risk that we face. In 2023 we will spend about $800 million for defense and another $900 million on all of the other discretionary programs, including veterans' benefits, education, social services, etc. However, that $1.7 billion only represents 25% of the total budget. The other 75% is made up of mandatory spending programs, including Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and interest on the national debt. It is that mandatory portion of the budget that is out of control. To pay for all of this spending, we pay taxes. The bad news is that the government only expects to collect about $4.8 billion in taxes in 2023 and that leaves us with another $1.4 billion to be added to our national credit card debt. The ultimate solution will undoubtably need to include more taxes of some sort, but we do not have a taxing problem. We have a spending problem.

Part of the reason that we have come to this point is that while the average American citizen is vaguely aware of our growing debt, they have not felt any pain from it. In fact, too many of us have been on the receiving end of this profligate spending with no downside. That is because, unlike a normal family, the government can cover up its growing debt by printing money and borrowing. The bad news is that too much of this borrowing is coming from people who are not our friends. For example, China is one of our biggest creditors and they could wreak havoc on us if they decided to do so.

The real danger, however, comes from the fact that we live in an increasingly dangerous world. China, Russia, Iran and North Korea seem to have joined together to threaten America and our allies. Allies who have been explicitly threatened recently already include Ukraine, Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan to name but a few. The end result of these threats will certainly be the need to increase our defense spending, however, our growing debt means that we may not have the means to do so. With increased interest rates over the past couple of years, the size of the interest on the national debt has accelerated. In fact, it is very possible that interest on the debt may actually exceed our defense budget for the first time in 2024 and it is only going to get worse. That is a very scary prospect indeed.

In conclusion, our exploding national debt is a ticking time-bomb that is waiting to explode, and I worry that it is going to explode at exactly the wrong time. If our political leaders refuse to face the issue, we must force them to do so. As I said earlier, there are solutions and there is still time, but we need to start NOW. I will talk about the solutions that I see in my next article.