On the recordOctober 28, 2019
we are set to borrow nearly $1 trillion this year. Our overall debt is over $22 trillion. In my office, I have a debt clock. You can see it at debtclock.org. It is spinning out of control. The numbers are mind-boggling. In the next decade, just the interest on the debt is set to exceed $1 trillion. That is $1 trillion simply wasted because we are not fiscally responsible enough to balance our budget. There are ramifications to having so much debt. When we monetize the debt or the Federal Reserve creates money to pay for the debt, what ends up happening is it dilutes the value of our current dollars. We have been doing that for a long period of nearly 100 years or over 100 years, since the Federal Reserve was created, and the vast majority of the dollar's value has been lost over time. Inflation is not what it used to be, but there are still other problems. As interest grows on the debt, it crowds out other spending. So when we get to spending $1 trillion on the interest of the debt, what it is going to do is it is going to crowd out other spending. Whether you are on the right and you want more military spending or you are on the left and you want more welfare spending, it is being crowded out by the debt growing so much that interest is pushing out other projects. What I have offered is a commonsense approach to this. Everybody has their sacred cow. Everybody has some money they want to spend somewhere. Why don't we cut every program by 2 pennies?…
