The economy is booming, and yet last year’s deficit was 6.3 percent of gross domestic product. If you correct for some odd accounting surrounding the Biden administration’s decision to forgive billions of dollars’ worth of student loans, it was more like 7.7 percent.
The unemployment rate is 3.8 percent, yet this year the federal government will spend $1.6 trillion more than it collects in taxes. About $870 billion of this is interest we’re paying on money we already borrowed.
We are fecklessly squandering what might be our last opportunity to get the government’s finances on a sustainable footing in an orderly manner that will minimize the pain. And I haven’t even told you the half of it.
Real gross domestic product grew 2.5 percent last year, but the national debt grew faster, rising to 97.3 percent of GDP from 96.9 percent in 2022. Just five years ago, it was 79.2 percent…
