Unlimited Spending
The federal fiscal year ends on September 30th, less than two weeks from now…and depending on when you hear this, there’s either fervent hope that a compromise will buy another 30 days to fix the overall issue, or else that hope came crashing to the ground like an unstable jenga tower, or back again. That’s how twisted this all is.
But with that Congressional sideshow as a backdrop comes this news…yesterday, the U.S. national debt topped $33 trillion for the first time ever. That’s bad enough…but data published by the U.S. Department of the Treasury notes that just four decades ago, it was only—only–$907 billion.
In essence, an increase of 33 times as much during my working life.
That’s the federal debt, $33 trillion. But at the same time, debt held by the public recently surpassed $26 trillion.
Sounds like Monopoly money, figures so large they don’t mean anything. But sadly, they do mean something…that spending is out of control, that the cost to service that debt will cripple multiple future generations…and that there’s no end in sight.
By the way, just this past June came the showdown over raising the debt ceiling…it was $32 trillion then. So this latest trillion dollars of debt came in just three months.
The latest findings from the Congressional Budget Office indicates that the national debt will nearly double in size over the next 30 years. At the end of last year, the national debt was 97 percent of gross domestic product. If nothing changes, that figure will be 181 percent 30 years from now.
Sadly, you already knew the problem. And you’ve probably got a pretty good idea of the solution…spend less, and fast. But getting Washington on board with that is, as always, the impossible dream.
