US national debt tops $34T: How much debt is too much debt?
FreedomWorks chief economist Steve Moore joins The Bottom Line to weigh in on the Biden White house blaming the GOP for 90% of the national debt increase.
The U.S. national debt surpassed $34 trillion this month for the first time in history and with large deficits expected to continue, questions about the sustainability of the debt burden are likely to mount.
The federal government just recorded its third-largest deficit in history when the U.S. ran a $1.7 trillion deficit in fiscal year 2023, which concluded at the end of September. That comes after the expiration of many of the COVID relief programs that drove the country’s two largest deficits – $3.1 trillion in FY2020 and $2.7 trillion in FY2021 – with rising costs of servicing the national debt a key factor.
As deficits persist at historically high levels and the national debt swells, concerns are growing about whether America’s debt dilemma could turn into a debt crisis, in large part due to relatively high interest rates brought about by the Federal Reserve’s fight against inflation.
«The time to start worrying is now,» Marc Goldwein, senior vice president and senior policy director for the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), told FOX Business. «There’s no sort of crisis inflection point. But the higher your debt is and the higher interest rates are, the bigger the threat to your near- and long-term sustainability.»
US NATIONAL DEBT TOPS $34T FOR FIRST TIME IN HISTORY
The U.S. national debt surpassed $34 trillion for the first time this month. (istock / iStock)
The exact point at which the federal debt and the cost of servicing it becomes unsustainable is an open question. A recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS)
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