The United States is regarded as the most powerful nation in the world. But once again, we\u2019re on the precipice of shattering the statutorily mandated debt ceiling, facing the threat of running out of money to operate the federal government.<\/span><\/p>\n Our debt stands at over $31.4 trillion and adds thousands more dollars every minute. America\u2019s fiscal path is not sustainable. In just over one decade,\u00a0<\/span>interest on the national debt will become the third-largest federal program<\/span><\/a>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The Congressional Budget Office defines national debt as the amount of debt that the federal government owes. This includes public debt of over $25 trillion (mostly U.S. Treasury bonds) and intragovernmental accounts (over $6.5 trillion), primarily Social Security and Medicare.<\/span><\/p>\n According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities<\/a>, here is how federal spending breaks down<\/span>: 23% is for Social Security; Medicare, 14%; Medicaid and health, 12%; other mandatory programs, 14%; defense spending, 30%; and interest on the national debt, 8%. For the latter, that amounts to $1 billion per day.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A default would have a huge gloomy impact on America\u2019s economy, and that could hurt Social Security and Medicare, lower the value of the U.S. dollar and further push us into a recession.<\/span><\/p>\n U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is doing her best to prevent any such disaster. On Jan. 13, she sent a letter to new House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, stating that the U.S. would reach its debt limit last Thursday and would have to resort to \u201cextraordinary measures\u201d to continue to fund the government \u2014 and\u00a0<\/span>that<\/span><\/em>\u00a0money could be exhausted by June.<\/span><\/p>\n It would be irresponsible to default on the national debt. It would hurt the creditworthiness of the U.S. government and its ability to borrow later, resulting in higher borrowing costs.<\/span><\/p>\n The last time Congress failed to increase the debt limit in a timely manner was in 2011. This is what happened: A Republican Congress and President Barack Obama faced off over the debt. But it was resolved at the 11th hour to avoid hitting the limit.<\/span><\/p>\n Rattled investors, consumers and business owners endured the consequences: Stocks plunged, the volatile market spiked, the economy did not recover for six months, and consumer confidence and small-business optimism plunged.<\/span><\/p>\n An actual breach at this time, because of our precarious economic condition, could be far worse, economists warn. It would force the Federal Reserve to raise the prime interest rate even more drastically, which affects both personal and business borrowing costs.<\/span><\/p>\n Researchers at Third Way, a Washington, D.C.-based public policy think tank that leans center-right, estimated in December 2022 that a debt limit breach this year could kill up to three million jobs, add $130,000 to the cost of an average 30-year mortgage and further increase the national debt by $850 billion.<\/span><\/p>\n America\u2019s growing debt is the result of simple math.<\/span><\/p>\n Each fiscal year, there\u2019s a mismatch between spending and revenue. And each year, our spending has been higher, creating a deficit. The multiyear deficits grow the national debt.<\/span><\/p>\n Why do we run deficits? Part of it is that we have huge fixed costs, exacerbated by predictable structural factors, such as our aging baby boomer population, rising health care costs, rising defense spending and a tax system that does not bring in enough money to pay for what the government has promised its citizens.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are some frightening numbers and facts to keep you up at night.<\/span><\/p>\n Our national debt is larger than the economies of China, Japan, Germany and United Kingdom\u00a0<\/span>combined<\/span><\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n It takes a mind-bending approach to quantify what one trillion means.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s one million multiplied by one million. It\u2019s also 1,000 billion ($1,000,000,000,000).<\/span><\/p>\n To pay back $1 trillion, at a rate of $1 per second would take 31,688 years.<\/span><\/p>\n The amount of national debt could cover tuition for a four-year college degree for every U.S. high school graduate for over 73 years.<\/span><\/p>\n If you go back 1 billion seconds, you\u2019d be in 1987. If you go back 1 trillion seconds, you\u2019d land around 30,000 B.C.<\/span><\/p>\n How many people truly understand why the United States\u2019 debt keeps rising, setting a shameful record every time? Do people just not care? Do they see reducing debt as a hopeless cause?\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Take a look at these similarly stunning statistics.<\/span><\/p>\n The national debt, raised for both public and intragovernmental needs, is a staggering 137% of our Gross Domestic Product, which is primarily the value of all goods and services produced in a fiscal year.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Each U.S. citizen\u2019s share of the debt is over $94,000. The debt per taxpayer is over $236,000. If every U.S. household contributed $1,000 per month toward paying down the national debt, it would take over 19 years.<\/span><\/p>\n From 2000 to 2022, the federal debt increased by over 350%.<\/span><\/p>\n The pandemic and subsequent inflationary spirals have boosted concerns about how large the U.S. debt is and how much more it could grow.<\/span><\/p>\n We\u2019ve kicked the can down the road long enough, putting our children in a difficult position of having to solve the debt problem.<\/span><\/p>\n Because of high inflation and rising interest rates, the federal government will soon spend more on interest payments on the national debt than we do on our children.<\/span><\/p>\n Many experts argue, \u201cthe debt ceiling is the epitome of a U.S. democracy that has become increasingly polarized. ungovernable, incapable of tackling major issues \u2014 and could be on the verge of outright destabilization.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s vital that this 118th Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike, stop the childish behavior and work together to solve this colossal problem and prevent an economic Armageddon.<\/span><\/p>\n Jim Martin can be reached at\u00a0jimmartinesq@gmail.com.<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n The United States is regarded as the most powerful nation in the world. But once again, we\u2019re on the precipice of shattering the statutorily mandated debt ceiling, facing the threat of running out of money to operate the federal government. Our debt stands at over $31.4 trillion and adds thousands more dollars every minute. America\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45213,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[161],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45212"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.brandon.ddtest.info\/multisite-test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Jim](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dailycamera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/20171012_13dcecolw-1-2.jpg?fit=620%2C9999px&ssl=1\")
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