Money Does Not Grow on Trees

Here we go again. Talk of raising the national debt yet again. It has risen from 40% of GNP in 1980 to the present high of 120% of of GNP in 2022. That is to say that to pay it off would require a sum of money having the value of everything produced over the next 1 year and 23 days, leaving nary a penny for you or me.

So where did the US government get the $23 trillion that has already been spend? Well, that would be from the sell of short-term U.S. government debt obligation (Treasury Bills) to investors. The interest payments of those Treasury Bills presently account for 8% of all government spending. That come to $399 billion in 1922 or about half of what we spent of national defense and 8 times what the Federal government spends on education. Mandatory government spending on social programs accounts for another 62% of government spending, leaving only 30% for everything else, including national defense and education.

Simply put, US governmental overspending is a case fiscal irresponsibility and it cannot continue indefinitely.

But who do we blame?

As you can see from this chart it has little to do with who is president or the political party in control of the Congress. It has everything to do with the House of Representatives regardless of party. The House, you understand, controls government spending, not the president.  The House creates the spending bills over which the president has limited veto power.