Chuck Grassley: “last week, I held 12 Q&As in 12 different counties during our Senate recess. Not in every county, but in some counties…”

“last week, I held 12 Q&As in 12 different counties during our Senate recess. Not in every county, but in some counties, a question like this comes up: What are you going to do about the national debt? I usually say to the person asking the question: You could have asked me an easier question. So I come to the floor to speak to an announcement that was made last week--an announcement that ought to scare all Americans but particularly those of us in the Congress of the United States--and it was not a surprise announcement. The United States recently eclipsed a fiscal milestone. At the end of March, the Nation's publicly held debt surpassed the value of all goods and services produced in our economy. Another way to say that is that our national debt as a percentage of our gross national product was more than 100 percent. Outside of a momentary blip during the pandemic, the Nation hasn't exceeded this mark since 1946. Passing this threshold should be a wake-up call to Congress to get the Nation's fiscal house in order. In 1946, debt relative to the economy hit its peak and precipitously declined thereafter thanks to the end of World War II. Today, it is just the opposite. Our debt is expected to grow faster than the economy indefinitely, and it ought to be a wake-up call to all of us in the Congress of the United States.”