Can the Debt be Solved? Not

The national debt. You hear all about it anywhere you look in American politics. The United States has accumulated nearly 36.2 trillion dollars in debt over the past several decades, and we show no signs of slowing down, even though the debt now surpasses the entirety of our GDP. Whether it be Democrats or Republicans in charge, it seems like a problem that’s nigh unsolvable. Why is this? And is it really a problem without a solution? Well, maybe, but sooner or later, it’s going to come knocking…

In the year 2024, the US spent roughly 6.7 trillion dollars, while raking in only 4.9 trillion, a deficit of around 1.8 trillion. So what exactly did we spend it on? Well, roughly 72% of it was spent on “non-discretionary spending,” which means that it was a government expenditure literally required by law. This includes things like Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, etc. A sizeable portion of this mandatory spending now includes interest on the national debt, which accounts for roughly 11% of the total expenditure of the nation now. The remaining 28% is discretionary spending, of which nearly half is spent on national defense, with the rest being split between a variety of things such as education, transportation, energy, and Health and Human Services.

So then, this presents an enormous problem for anyone wishing to cut spending. In order to break even, we’d have to cut roughly 26% of the national budget. Perhaps the most popular idea floated for reducing the deficit is reducing military spending. Even if we cut the military budget in half (something that neither party would exactly be happy to do in an age when China is continually encroaching upon our world power status), we still have another 16% or so to go. And again, that’s only breaking even!

Any other cuts would be political suicide for any member of Congress who voted for them. Social Security takes up a whopping 22% of the entire budget, and as more and more Baby Boomers enter retirement age, that number is only going to get larger, as well as the number of voters who are dependent on it. Even threatening to slightly cut Medicaid has Republicans on the defensive, and cutting other social programs, which comprise around 11% of mandatory spending, is never a popular option from an electoral perspective. The fact of the matter is that reducing the deficit is a totally unelectable position, for either party. Thus, the problem is only going to get kicked down the road further and further until we truly can’t ignore it anymore, and that day may be coming sooner than we think.

By 2040, the interest on the national debt will comprise roughly 50% of ALL government spending, and eventually, this number will become insurmountable. I do not know what the solution could be in a democratic system such as our own. As I’ve written about in the past, issues like these where public opinion is objectively counter to the public good demonstrate that modern liberal democracies may end up being a poor choice of government in the long run. Many European nations face the same slowly growing issue, and the global economy seems to be headed toward highly volatile and unfamiliar territory…

Perhaps we need a Caesar to save us from our own stupidity.