WASHINGTON, D.C. – Our national debt has hit an all-time high: 40-trillion dollars. Financial experts said the annual interest alone on the accumulated debt is now a trillion dollars, which has now become one of the government’s biggest expenses.
We’re told the amount reflects an increase in federal spending as well as funding for social programs, higher defense costs, and rising interest payments on the national debt. The national debt has climbed over several administrations. Experts said the federal government is spending more than it collects.
“I don’t think we can talk about the debt without talking about how we got here and that is multiple rounds of expansive tax cuts in this century,” said Bobby Kogan, senior director of federal budget policy with the Center for American Progress. “We always knew baby boomers would be retiring, we knew healthcare costs were growing, so we always knew Medicare costs would grow and we knew that social security cost would grow but we used to have a tax system that would keep pace with that but then we cut taxes and now we don’t. It’s as simple as that.”
“The number itself while it gets the headline, what’s more concerning to me is the trajectory,” said Scott DiGiammarino, a partner with JPTD Partners. “It’s like a hockey stick going up.”
We’re told the increased debt could affect Americans’ pocketbooks.
“Things such as your credit card interest rates might go up, mortgage rates might go up, borrowing money could go up,” said DiGiammarino. “As you know, the more interest rates you’re paying the more difficult decisions you’re going to have to make on a day to day basis in terms of goods and services you buy.”
White House spokesman Kush Desai sent us this statement: ” President Trump pledged to clean up Joe Biden’s fiscal mismanagement. That’s why the Trump administration has been focused on slashing waste, fraud, and abuse in federal spending while accelerating economic growth to get America’s debt-to-GDP ratio trending in the right direction again. As the President’s supply-side economic agenda continues to cool inflation and pave the road for interest rate cuts by the Fed, the markets and everyday Americans can count on more relief ahead.”
“The issue is there’s no line item in the budget called fraud, waste and abuse that you can get rid of,” said Kogan. “So, finding ways to cut spending where you’re not harming middle class or vulnerable Americans is pretty tough and finding ways to raise taxes- I mean I have tons of ideas there, but finding ways to raise taxes you can go after profitable corporations, you can go after some of the richest Americans who are in much different tax rates than the Clinton era. There are things you can begin to do but its just a long journey.”
