This week America’s national debt hit $40 trillion. That’s forty trillion with a T, a number of such enormity, it’s difficult to comprehend. So, let me give you a couple of examples.
· Suppose the federal government found an extra billion dollars ($1,000,000,000.00) every single day and devoted every penny to the debt. It would take about 110 years to pay off $40 trillion with zero interest.
· Spread among roughly 340 million Americans, $40 trillion works out to about $118,000 per person. For a family of four, that’s roughly $470,000 of debt.
Get me my checkbook; I want to do my part.
But seriously, is that the security blanket you wanted to leave for your grandchildren? In 2016, when America was only 240 years old, the national debt was approaching $20 trillion. “We’re not a rich country. We’re a debtor nation,” is what then-candidate Trump told The Washington Post in a March interview that year. We’ve got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt.” He promised to do it.
How did Trump react to the $40 trillion milestone ten years later? He gave a tour of the White House construction projects and he talked about flagpoles. “This is a great pole. This is a top-of-the-line… It’s tapered. This isn’t a straight up-and-down job, which looks terrible, frankly. It’s a tapered pole, great. I’m very good at flagpoles!”
And later, while playing tour guide for his numerous White House construction projects, he added his reflection on the new sod, “Grass has a life like humans have a life. If you’re grass, you’re very happy.” The grass had a better week than the budget.
For those who will predictably scream Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS), always a productive and insightful rebuttal, fine. I’m OK with that. But it doesn’t change the math. You, and you, and you, and I are $118,000 in debt while our president is building monuments and incoherently bragging about flagpoles and happy grass.
No concerns yet? This may not have hit Fox News, but it’s true. TDS? Sure, why not?
America is like a family that is six months behind on the mortgage, while paying off credit cards with other credit cards, and they just had their car repossessed. Then Dad declares, “Don’t worry, kids, I just bought a top-of-the-line flagpole. It’s the best. It’s tapered.”
Politicians pooh-pooh the debt figure, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent noted, “There’s nothing magic about the $40 trillion number, and we can grow our way out of that.” Really, Scott?
And, while they downplay America’s debt, let’s look at Washington’s latest idea. I call it vanity insanity. The Navy is said to be considering the renaming of an aircraft carrier that was designated to honor a black World War II hero, Doris Miller. And who will we be renaming it for? One guess.
Miller was stationed at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked in 1941. Despite never being trained on anti-aircraft weapons, he manned an unmanned weapon, and saved lives during the attack. He died in action in 1943 when his ship was torpedoed. He was 24. That sounds like a guy who did more than his job. It does not sound like DEI.
The Navy officially designated the USS Doris Miller in 2020, and the Navy’s own publication described Miller as the honoree. When completed, it would be the first aircraft carrier named for a black American serviceman. Now? Maybe not.
If the change does occur, this would not be the first U.S. ship to be named after a president; ships bear the names of John F. Kennedy, Ronald Reagan, and George W. Bush. But naming one for a sitting president breaks precedent, which seems to be precedent now. It raises a question about whether military honors are being used to honor service or to stroke an ego.
But $40 trillion! That’s the real headline, the crisis to address, the thing that ought to keep everybody in Washington, and you and me, awake at night. It isn’t just a number. It’s a big number. And it’s a warning. It’s the check-engine light that flashes into our children’s future.
Instead, we’re bragging about ballrooms and flagpoles. And we’re considering taking back an honor from a fallen war-hero so sycophants can slap “Trump” on another American asset.
When the house is on fire, you may want to quit arguing about what color to paint the mailbox.
The debt has been ignored forever. Both parties are at fault, because whoever is in power seems to forget what they said before they got that power.
It’s time to stop deflecting, and to start asking, “When do we decide to do something about it?” And the response shouldn’t be “I’m very good at flagpoles.” How about, “I’m very good at budgets?”
The point here is not flagpoles, or ballrooms, or the name on a ship. Those things won’t impact the debt much. It’s about priorities. Why are ours so out of whack?
Consider the fate of your kids, of your grandkids. Because someday, our children and grandchildren are going to inherit this $40 trillion bill. And without action now, it could be $50 trillion in 2-3 years. That will be a really big number.
They won’t care how tapered the flagpole was. They probably won’t set foot in the ballroom. And I hope they will be appalled that we considered withdrawing the promise to name a ship for a fallen American hero who gave his life serving his country.
They’ll wonder about the burden we left them and ask, “What the heck were you people thinking?”
Curt MacRae is a resident of Coldwater, MI and publishes opinion columns regularly.
To be notified by email when a column is published, or to offer feedback: rantsbymac@gmail.com
Comments