My podcast partner Rose suggested that I blog about the rapidly increasing national debt. This will not be a political post, as the federal national debt increased a ton under Obama, again under Trump, and again under Biden. (If you want fiscal responsibility, you have to look for governors of red states who are running surpluses). Let’s see the latest news, then talk about what it means.
Here’s the news from the Epoch Times:
The U.S. national debt recorded its third “depressing achievement” in the past 12 months, topping $34 trillion for the first time to close out 2023, according to the latest Treasury Department Debt to the Penny data.
On Dec. 29, 2023, the debt climbed about $90 billion in one day, to exceed $34.001 trillion. It took Washington roughly three months to add $1 trillion to the gross federal debt and six months to amass $2 trillion.
In a single year, the federal government’s total public debt outstanding rocketed by about $2.65 trillion. By comparison, it took the United States more than 200 years to cross the $1 trillion mark in October 1981.
The long-term predictions are even worse:
In the coming months, the Treasury forecasts that it’ll borrow roughly $1 trillion to fund higher budget deficits and manage growing interest costs. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projected this past summer that the national debt will nearly double and account for 183 percent of gross domestic product by 2053.
[…]According to President Joe Biden’s 2024 budget, the federal deficit is expected to be close to $1.9 trillion this year. The annual budget gap is predicted to remain above $2 trillion after 2030.
Let me give my thoughts about this.
Right now, you can already see that interest rates are rising due to counter the inflation caused by massive government spending. Higher interest rates make it harder for innovators to borrow money in order to take risks on new products and services. So, the economy slows down.
Our creditors may demand higher interest rates on our borrowing, because of the rising risk that we will be unable to pay them back. That will increase the amount that we are paying in interest. My concern about this is that we won’t have money available to deploy our military in the event of aggressive behavior from countries that don’t like us very much.
Speaking of interest, our interest payments on the debt are taking up more and more of our discretionary spending. Soon, we won’t have any money to spend after spending on mandatory programs, like Social Security and Medicare. Eventually, we won’t have money for those. Pity the young people who are paying into social programs that are about to go into deficit.
That leads to my last point. The current generation is seeing the benefits of all this spending, but the upcoming generation is going to get the bill. What’s amazing is that the younger generation is so brainwashed by the schools that they can’t even vote in their own interest. They come out of the schools voting for more government, more spending, and higher taxes. They don’t realize that they are the ones who are going to get the bill. They want to be communist, like Venezuela, but they don’t really understand what it will be like.
WINTERY KNIGHT 
My kids aren’t quite at the age where they can understand the intricacies of various policies and political parties, but I described one party as:
* favoring increasing government control and spending,
* having the government be the safety net (or government should have more control)
* having the government have more say into various programs and projects
We have talked about socialism and communism (including selected examples, like if people are taxed 100% beyond say, 40 hours a week or over a million in income — how this is demotivating to work hard/work more or innovate or generate new wealth).
And we as Christians should also care about some line items and policies and challenge those if they are not beneficial/not in our best interest as humans and/or as Christians.
I did raise alternatives in various cases including education:
* are there schools that are spending money more efficiently? Yes. Private schools and charter schools (and even groups of family that homeschool together) are more efficient and effective.
Sheer amount of funding per student doesn’t indicate success.
Yes, we have other ways to challenge our kids … I’m almost autocratic in going to the library, where we’re going tonight, as well as some other enrichment programs.
Back to your question of the day: yeah, the people in power are spending a lot and not balancing the checkbook and trying to kick the can down the road. It’s a big deal as you’ve pointed out.
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It’s funny, because I came here from a different country to be able to earn enough to fuel a Christian life plan. It sounds like some Christian parents will be sending their children to other countries to do the same. Maybe not now, but eventually.
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Michael Dukakis campaiged for president in 1988 and I remember his opponent promised to give like $500 to every family for each child they have. Dukakis said, “so you’re basically going to give the children $500 each.
Where are we going to get the money?
We’re going to borrow it.
Who are we going to borrow it from?
The children!”
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Wow. Government really has no money of their own. They take it from taxpayers.
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The relative value of a stay at home wife who can produce unvalued (and thus un-taxable) goods and services in the home is going up. I’ve started saving heirloom seeds for garden vegetables (at least the easy ones – the self pollenating; others such as squash don’t self pollenate, so they don’t breed true… but would eat just fine if we got that hard up).
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I agree with you. It’s a huge priority because things like food, energy, vehicles, firearms, bank accounts, healthcare, etc. are increasingly becoming targets of the secular left.
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