Does any amount of personal debt make you cringe? Many of you are nodding your head. But what about the debt of our nation? For most of us, the number is so large that we can't begin to comprehend what it means. In fact, most Americans today can’t even recall the number. So how much is it?
Well, the gross national debt of the United States set a new record on Monday at $31 trillion. One trillion dollars is a million dollars multiplied by a million. Or, put another way, a thousand billion. It has 12 zeroes. And that’s just one trillion. Multiply all those examples by 31. This is not a record we should ever want to break, and, unfortunately, this comes just nine months after the gross debt exceeded $30 trillion in January.
Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said in a press release: “In the past 18 months, we’ve witnessed inflation rise to a 40-year high, interest rates climbing in part to combat this inflation, and several budget-busting pieces of legislation and executive actions. Just in 2022, Congress and the President have approved a combined $1.9 trillion in new borrowing, and President Biden has approved $4.9 trillion in new deficits since taking office. We are addicted to debt.”
Unfortunately, she is right. And you can’t blame it all on one political party or one person. Every legislator, and anyone else who has pushed them to borrow and borrow and borrow, has responsibility in this ridiculous debt.
For decades now, lawmakers have chosen to avoid this very serious issue. Just five years ago, our country had $20 trillion in gross debt — and that seemed unbelievable at the time. Much of that new borrowing was certainly necessary to deal with issues related to COVID, but the most severe of those pandemic challenges are behind us.
It is time for our elected officials to budget responsibly, and here are two reasons why: Medicare is six years from insolvency, and Social Security is 12.
As 2022 closes, it is time to remind policymakers that dealing with the national debt is their job. MacGuineas suggests they commit to no further borrowing in 2022, noting that “it cannot be too much to ask that they practice paying for their priorities by abstaining from any new borrowing for just three months.”
Seems reasonable to me.
Have a thoughtful Thursday, and thanks for reading.
Shane Goodman
President and Publisher
Big Green Umbrella Media
shane@dmcityview.com |
