[tomder55]

The US debt has surpassed $31 trillion . That is 125% of the total US GDP ($20.94 trillion)

There was a time when such figures would've set off alarm bells . But this happened without a whimper . The US media barely even reports such milestones. America has accepted the fact that we are a debtor nation .

Rising interest rates being instituted by run away inflation means that a greater percentage of the US budget will be needed to service the debt .

But still Congress (both parties ) spends like drunken sailors (my apology to drunken sailors .....they only spend money they have )


"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."
(Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget

It took only 5 years to go from a $20 trillion debt (roughly 100% of GDP) to todays number . Most of it was unnecessary covid related spending and failed stimulus policies .

There is no relief on the horizon . We are looking at insolvencies in Medicare and the Social Security Ponzi scheme that needs to be addressed in the near future.

I am not aware of any plan put forth by Congressional policy makers to address these immediate issues.

[jlisenbe]

Deficit Spending Hall of Shame.

1. Obama. Doubled the national debt in only 8 years.
2. Bush. Inherited a balanced budget from Clinton and promptly disposed of that idea in his first year.
3. Trump. Had three years of an amazingly healthy economy and still overspent by hundreds of billions a year.
4. Biden. The greatest non-thinker in White House history actually introduced an unfunded, multi-trillion dollar spending bill by referring to it as an anti-inflation measure.
5. Defeated Carter by, among other things. pointing out his deficit spending, but then preceded to not have a single balanced budget in his eight years.

[tomder55]

The Dem leadership ,emboldened by their election showing is promising to not only raise the debt ceiling before the end of the year ,or even eliminate it completely.

They are not going to risk the possibility of a Repub controlled House of Reps blocking this move. They believe this move would knee cap any attempt by the Repubs to use the ceiling as leverage to reform programs that desperately need to be reformed .