When America’s “National Debt Clock” came online in 1989 near Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan, the objective was to increase attention on our country’s spending problem.
It hasn’t worked.
At the time of its installation, the billboard-sized digital clock — which keeps a running total of our country’s total debt — showed a balance just under $3 trillion. Today, the number is more than $35 trillion ($104,300 for every person in the United States). And yet very few people seem to care.
With a presidential election imminent, this is when Americans can see what our country’s top priorities are, the biggest issues we want our leaders to solve. Based on polling results, news media and the politicians themselves, this list includes topics like immigration, abortion and U.S. involvement in foreign wars. You know what we don’t hear much about? Our historically high national debt or legitimate strategies to fix it.
This is not a political column, but it’s worth pointing out that spending sells in Washington. Voters want to know, “What can you do for me?” from their representatives. “Bigger budgets” and “lower taxes” are the answers that typically garner votes. Both of those lead to higher debt.
Some dismiss the size of our debt by suggesting the U.S. economy can simply grow its way out of the problem. “Debt as a percentage of GDP,” they argue, is a more appropriate measurement, and many economists agree.
In the 1960s and ‘70s, America’s debt-to-GDP hovered around 30%. By 2010, it had ballooned to 60%. It is now approaching 100% for the first time since 1946, when government spending peaked in order to win World War II. The Congressional Budget Office projects debt-to-GDP will further increase to 116% a decade from now.
Here is what Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said in a “60 Minutes” interview earlier this year: “In the long run, the U.S. government is on an unsustainable fiscal path. Debt is growing faster than the economy. It’s time for us to get back to putting a priority on fiscal sustainability, and sooner is better than later.”