Our national debt of $31 trillion is so enormous it seems nearly impossible to find a workable method for handling it. Unfortunately, many in Washington are not even trying.
For too long, our leaders have looked at the mountain of debt accumulated by government spending and done nothing. Many politicians seemingly hope they are not around when the inevitable disaster – insolvency, benefit reductions, defense cuts, unpaid obligations and unmet needs – happens. But to any reasonable American — including the millions of families that balance their checkbooks, pay their bills, and budget according to their incomes — it is obvious that at some point the debt won’t be something we can simply ignore. Maintaining the promise of America for future generations requires fiscal responsibility.
We must enact long term budgeting, not last minute “fiscal cliff” scrambles that allow billions of taxpayer dollars to be spent with no clear oversight or accountability. We must prioritize economic stability, protect seniors, defend our people, and provide for education and infrastructure. Our nation’s unsustainable spending and growing national debt must be brought into order.
The economic forecasts for the next decade are painfully clear: The Medicare trust fund is expected to begin running a shortfall in 2028. The Social Security Administration trust fund will become insolvent in about ten years. The $1.4 trillion in interest payments on the national debt will be larger than our defense spending in 2033.
The growing burden of interest payments on our debt is already apparent. American citizens paid $475 billion in interest on the national debt in 2022. This interest payment amount was up 35% from the previous year and is projected to increase another 35% this year. These billions of dollars we spend just to maintain our debt; not to pay it off, does nothing to account for current or future needs. Because the debt is never paid down, only added to, interest payments will only get larger. According to consensus forecasts, in the next decades interest costs will exceed spending on other programs and eventually become the largest item in our budget.
Bad fiscal policy is bad for the economy and bad for the American people. A sound financial future requires wise financial action now. Our children will not enjoy the same potential for economic success now possible in this country if they find their chances hobbled by crippling debt. We are denying future Americans the medical care, military protection, research and development, and government services offered to us, because they will instead have to pay more and more of the budget to service the debt they inherited.
Even with our current debt crisis, President Biden has proposed spending even more than the $5 trillion in tax increases he has proposed, raising our debt to $51 trillion in ten years. This is willful destruction of the American economy and America’s future potential.
The best solution to protect Medicare and Social Security, to ensure we can afford a strong military, and to allow our children and grandchildren the financial freedom and economic opportunity they deserve, is for the American people to insist their leaders work together to enact meaningful reforms that end wasteful spending.
America deserves leadership that will stop wasteful spending to appease special interest groups and put the economic best interests of the American people first.