Our federal debt as a percentage of GDP is increasing astronomically.
It seems like almost every other year, Americans feel anxiety and then relief when Congress gets into a budget/debt ceiling standoff. And generally speaking, Congress merely postpones the problem, known in Washington parlance as “kicking the can down the road.” Why should we have confidence that lawmakers will resolve the mess next time? Or any time? The parties are too divided. This all reminds us of Alfred Lord Tennyson’s 1854 poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” about another doomed enterprise:
Someone had blunder’d: Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die.
It’s Everyone’s Problem
Take pity on the can. It’s been kicked so far down the road, it could circle the globe a dozen times. It’s been battered more than last year’s New York Jets starting lineup. It’s been kicked harder than placekicker Adam Vinatieri does the pigskin. And still, it persists.
Sometimes, the Democrats refuse to negotiate. Sometimes, the Republicans refuse to negotiate. Sometimes, the Democrats ask for something they have no hope of getting. Sometimes, the Republicans ask for something they have no hope of getting. So, instead, everyone agrees to kick the can down the road. But what happens when they can’t kick it anymore?
The Kicked Can
The kicked can is America’s future. It is the hopes and dreams of entrepreneurs whose ideas today could become tomorrow’s Apple or Microsoft or whatever your favorite publicly traded company might be. It is the personal freedom that comes with economic freedom. It is our children’s legacy. The can is now over $30 trillion in debt (that is more than $243,000 per taxpayer and over $91,000 per citizen). And it’s only getting worse. As interest rates rise, so will payments on the debt.
And yet spending is also increasing at an unprecedented rate. In 1980, federal debt equaled about 35% of the gross domestic product. As recently as 2000, it was at about 57% of GDP. It now exceeds 123% of GDP. Unless the government takes action soon, America’s credit rating will be at risk, Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will go broke, and the U.S. will owe trillions of dollars to foreign countries. But why take action now when you can kick the can once again?
