Every hour the U.S. debt jumps $218 million. That's $5.2 billion each day. Current total government debt stands at a staggering $34.228 trillion. As scary as those figures are, the debt is expected to skyrocket to $50 trillion by 2033, less than a decade away.
For perspective, the nation's debt was $5.67 trillion at the beginning of 2000. In just over two decades, the current debt is nearly seven times higher. Since 2018, Congress has shoveled on another $12.7 trillion to the debt mountain.
Today there is no limit on how high the federal debt can rise. Congress passed a bill in June of last year suspending the nation's debt limit through January 1, 2025. It is the equivalent of handing a credit card for Congress to continue to rack up more debt without any restraints.
The debt balloon is the result of Congress's insatiable appetite for spending more than the tax dollars the government collects. In the most recent fiscal year 2023, the federal government collected $4.44 trillion in taxes, but spent $6.13 trillion, creating a $1.7 trillion deficit hole.
Deficits matter because the feds issue debt to fund the yawning canyon between revenues and spending. Beginning with fiscal year 2020 through 2023, the government accumulated deficits totaling $9 trillion. Even drunken sailors are spendthrifts by comparison.
Don't expect a baptism of fiscal responsibility to convert the current Congress. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) forecasts a $1.6 trillion deficit by the end of fiscal year 2024 on September 30. Deficits are expected to top $2 trillion annually after 2031, reaching $2.6 trillion in 2034.
Revenues are not the problem. Tax collections and fees rose 8% from 2022 to 2023. Individual taxpayers forked over $2.18 trillion, accounting for 49% of the revenue collected by the feds. Fiscal accountability is a fleeting idea that has been drowned by a gusher of spending.
Paying for the debt created by deficit spending is getting more expensive. Interest costs have nearly doubled the past three years from $345 billion in 2020 to $659 billion in 2023. Interest is now the fourth largest spending category, behind only Social Security, Medicare and defense.
Those eye watering figures are projected to get worse. Based on trends, the CBO forecasts that interest on federal debt will reach $1.4 trillion in fiscal year 2033, creating a budget nightmare. This is fiscally unsustainable without Draconian tax increases or budget cuts or both.
Balancing the budget, a feat performed by millions of American households, is apparently beyond the mental acuity of Congress. Only twice in the last half-century has Congress found the political will to reach financial equilibrium--in 1969 and from 1998-2001 under President Bill Clinton,
Before even tackling a balanced budget, Congress must first reign in deficits. Although it's easy to blame COVID spending for the spike in the size of deficits, Congress has been spending more than government revenues for the last 22 years. Lawmakers have a spending dependency.
Since 1997, senators and representatives of both parties have ignored the regular budget process of approving a budget that fully funds the government. Congress seems to prefer chaos, failing to pass more than five of its 12 regular appropriation bills by the deadline in the last 26 years.
In 11 of the past 13 fiscal years, lawmakers have not passed a single spending bill by October 1, which marks the beginning of a new federal budget year. Instead, Congress employs a shell game, approving what's called continuing resolutions to partially fund the government over several months.
Continuing resolutions maintain government funding at current levels, but often supplemental appropriations are shoehorned into a CR. These stopgap gimmicks allow lawmakers to spend while obfuscating the full impact on deficits. This lack of transparency would not be tolerated in any business.
For all the brouhaha over CR's, these appropriation measures only cover discretionary spending. The hefty money is federal outlays for Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment compensation and other entitlement programs. Funding is mandated by statues.
These programs accounted for $4.6 trillion in spending in 2023, about 73% of the federal budget. Unless Congress tackles mandatory appropriations, spending will reach the stratosphere. Lawmakers of both parties are deathly afraid of the political blowback of even suggesting a reduction in programs.
Representatives and Senators are easily spooked. Mention "government shutdown," defaulting on the national debt," or "reducing food stamps" and lawmakers capitulate. They prefer political theatre and gamesmanship to tackling the unpalatable but essential choices to restore fiscal integrity.
What will it take to restore financial sanity? Most likely an economic meltdown. Short of a financial Armageddon, the solution is for voters to quit electing the same people to Congress and expecting a different outcome. If voters make balancing the budget their top priority, there is hope for change.
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