The U.S. debt hit $40 trillion Wednesday, an astonishing and enormous number that will only climb faster as debt on interest payments continues to eat up more of the total, according to National Taxpayers Union research.
The national debt is now doubled from when it hit $20 trillion less than a decade ago. The main driver of federal debt is unchecked federal overspending and compounding interest costs.
“The debt is completely out of control and taxpayers are the victims. We are now facing oceans of red ink that fuel higher borrowing costs and more expensive goods from grocery to back-to-school necessities,” NTU Executive Vice President Brandon Arnold said. “Instead of addressing this problem, politicians in Washington are talking about spending even more—like the Reconciliation 3.0 package that would add more than $100 billion to the debt.”
The best action Congress can take is to immediately address waste, fraud, and abuse in auto-pilot spending of entitlement programs like Medicaid, Social Security, and food assistance. The Government Accountability Office reports that over $500 billion is lost to improper payments each year. That should be the start, not the end, of the process of restoring fiscal sanity to Washington. Policymakers must put all options on the table, including Fiscal Commissions, budget caps, cut-as-you-go mechanisms, and more.
In March, Arnold compared the national debt to the income and spending of a fictional family, the Havernots.
The Havernot family earns just under $66,000 a year, which is the same as the average American worker. That equates to a weekly paycheck of $1,266 or monthly earnings of $5,486, before taxes and other deductions. In proportion to the federal government, they spend just over $86,500 a year, meaning they have to borrow more than $20,500 annually to cover their expenses. On a monthly basis, the Havernots bring in almost $5,500 while spending a little more than $7,200 a month, a recipe for financial disaster.
National Taxpayers Union is the only free-market organization for taxpayers that unites effective advocacy with useful research about how to limit taxes, spending, and regulation at every level and branch of government—state, federal, administrative, and judicial.
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