President Joe Biden speaks about his Investing in America agenda in Sturtevant, Wis., on May 8, 2024.© MANDEL NGAN, AFP via Getty Images

If you or I decided to go wild with our credit cards and didn’t pay off those balances regularly, we would see what we owe expand rapidly as high interest rates make the debt increasingly hard to manage. 

There’s a price to pay for unwise financial decisions. Most of us understand the economic consequences of living beyond our means. 

Except for President Joe Biden and the federal government, that is.

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The national debt is already at $34 trillion and is quickly hurtling toward $35 trillion (it was roughly $27 trillion  when Biden took office). 

You may not care, but you should. 

The costs of carrying such a significant debt are putting pressure on other spending priorities as interest alone takes up a higher percentage of the government’s budget. In fact, interest payments are the fastest-growing segment of the budget.

The U.S. just hit a new “milestone”: In the first seven months of the current fiscal year, payments on interest have cost taxpayers more than defense and Medicare spending. Only Social Security eats a higher percentage of the budget – for now. In less than 30 years, interest on the debt will likely become our largest expenditure.