The country is almost certain to enter the next shock more indebted than we have ever been before, which may significantly hamper our ability to marshal an appropriate response. The U.S. has never experienced an economic shock as indebted as we are today. This situation leaves the U.S. immensely vulnerable.
The United States is now paying nearly $970 billion a year just to service the interest on its $38.8 trillion national debt - a figure that has nearly tripled since 2020 and already exceeds what the federal government spends on national defense or Medicaid, according to a February analysis by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB).
In mid-February, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a shocking report calculating that at the current rate of increase, the national debt is set to hit $64 trillion by 2036. Sixty-four trillion dollars is such an eye-popping number—double the national debt in 2023 and triple where it stood in 2018—that it would mean the public would owe over 120% of overall GDP, crushing the previous record of 106% in 1946.