The United States passes an ominous milestone: Gross national debt now exceeds $30 trillion, years earlier than expected

Andrew Mangum/NYT

Never will it be possible to pay this debt back in cash. Which means the debt will eventually be collected on by creditors using other means. Your children and grandchildren will either be speaking Mandarin Chinese, or living in caves and eating grass as nobody will be able to afford a home or anything else. Until then, I would suggest not listening to either of our political parties about how their opponents have been spending recklessly and they’re the responsible ones. Democrat or Republican, blood is on all of their grimy hands. Via the New York Times -  

WASHINGTON — America’s gross national debt topped $30 trillion for the first time on Tuesday, an ominous fiscal milestone that underscores the fragile nature of the country’s long-term economic health as it grapples with soaring prices and the prospect of higher interest rates. 

The breach of that threshold, which was revealed in new Treasury Department figures, arrived years earlier than previously projected as a result of trillions in federal spending that the United States has deployed to combat the pandemic. That $5 trillion, which funded expanded jobless benefits, financial support for small businesses and stimulus payments, was financed with borrowed money. 

The borrowing binge, which many economists viewed as necessary to help the United States recover from the pandemic, has left the nation with a debt burden larger than the entire economy, surpassing levels of red ink not seen since World War II. 

Some economists contend that the nation’s large debt load is not unhealthy given that the economy is growing, interest rates are low and investors are still willing to buy U.S. Treasury securities, which gives them safe assets to help manage their financial risk. Those securities allow the government to borrow money relatively cheaply and use it to invest in the economy. 

Yet the figures come amid renewed concerns in Washington over the nation’s fiscal trajectory and its ballooning budget deficit, which is the gap between what the nation spends and the revenue it brings in. Those worries helped stall negotiations over President Biden’s $2 trillion safety net and climate spending proposal, with Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia citing “staggering debt” as a reason he could not support the legislation. 

The lingering pandemic has slowed the momentum of the economic recovery, fueling inflation rates unseen since the early 1980s and raising the prospect of higher interest rates, which could add to America’s fiscal burden. (Read more)

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