report<\/a>.<\/p>\nMichael Peterson, CEO of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, said federal spending remains unsustainable.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur national debt is now greater than the economies of the entire Eurozone and China, combined,\u201d he said. \u201cWe are now adding a trillion more to the national debt every 5 months. That\u2019s more than twice as fast as the average rate over the last 25 years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Peterson isn\u2019t optimistic about Congress changing course.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur growing debt slowly damages our economy and the prospects of the next generation. As the government borrows trillion after trillion, it puts upward pressure on interest rates, adding costs for everyone and reducing private sector investment. Within the federal budget, the debt crowds out important priorities and creates a damaging cycle of more borrowing, more interest costs, and even more borrowing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cWhile the sheer size of our debt is shocking, it\u2019s even more troubling that lawmakers continue to disregard the damage it does to our economy. The recent budget reconciliation package took our fiscal outlook from horrible to worse, adding more than $4 trillion to deficits over the next decade \u2014 or even more if temporary tax cuts are extended, or spending cuts are rolled back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget Maya MacGuineas called the figure \u201cmind-boggling.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201c$37 trillion of debt is a mind-boggling figure that has little precedent. The more economically meaningful figure \u2014 debt held by the public as a share of output \u2014 is also approaching record levels,\u201d she said. \u201cOur current debt is 100 percent of the economy \u2014 higher than any time other than just after World War II \u2014 and is rising rapidly.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacGuineas said Congress shows no signs of changing course on spending.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo add insult to injury, we\u2019re on course to spend $1 trillion this year just on interest costs,\u201d she said. \u201cInterest is now the second largest item in the budget, surpassing the entire defense budget as well as Medicare.\u201d<\/p>\n
Concord Action Executive Director Carolyn Bourdeaux said the U.S. debt\u00a0is connected\u00a0to the future of\u00a0Social\u00a0Security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis milestone comes\u00a0at a time\u00a0when Social Security faces a troubled future. This system is the foundation of older Americans\u2019 dignity and prosperity, but the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund will become insolvent by 2033,\u201d she said. \u201cAt that time, we will be forced to make hard choices: massive benefit cuts, major tax increases, or financing the system through even more debt, endangering the economic vitality of this country.\u201d<\/p>\n
She added: \u201cThe looming shortfalls in Social Security\u00a0are intimately connected\u00a0with our nation\u2019s overall deteriorating fiscal outlook, and every year of delay makes the choices more difficult and the trade-offs more punishing.\u201d<\/p>\n
MacGuineas said she hoped it would serve as a wake-up call for lawmakers.<\/p>\n
\u201cHopefully this milestone is enough to wake\u00a0up\u00a0policymakers to the reality that we need to do something, and we need to do it quickly,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Trump has said he wants to use tariff revenue to pay\u00a0down\u00a0the national debt, although he\u2019s also suggested other uses\u00a0for that money, including rebate checks for Americans.<\/p>\n
In March, the Congressional Budget\u00a0Office\u2019s\u00a0said U.S. debt held by the public is on track to reach its highest level ever in 2029 before reaching 156% of gross domestic product in 2055. Gross domestic product\u00a0is a measurement of\u00a0economic output.<\/p>\n
\u201cMounting debt would slow economic growth, push up interest payments to foreign holders of U.S. debt, and pose significant risks to the fiscal and economic outlook; it could also cause lawmakers to feel constrained in their policy choices,\u201d the CBO report noted.<\/p>\n
A Government Accountability Office\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0in January\u00a0warned that unchecked spending could push public debt to 219% of GDP by 2051 and create a significant economic and national security risk.<\/p>\n\u201cWe project that public debt will reach an unprecedented level by 2027,\u201d said Gene Dodaro, U.S. Comptroller General and head of the GAO. \u201cWe\u2019re calling on Congress and the Administration to act now to develop and implement a strategy to address this acute challenge. Inaction could result in great difficulties for many Americans and impede policymakers\u2019 flexibility to respond to future economic recessions or unexpected events.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pres. Donald Trump speaks from the White House Rose Garden on Wednesday, April 2. By Brett RowlandThe Center…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":88736,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[28,101],"class_list":["post-88735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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