“The national debt just exceeded $100,000 per citizen.” Rep. John James, a Michigan Republican, said that in December 2023, and he did not stop there. The figure, he argued, “should send a message to the White House that this reckless federal spending is at a breaking point.”
By the last days of the year, the total was closing in on a bigger marker. Fox News reported on December 31, 2023, that U.S. Treasury numbers showed the government’s debt fast approaching $34 trillion. Nearly $27 trillion of it was held by the public.
How the ceiling got here
The climb followed a political deal. Congressional Republicans and President Joe Biden agreed in June to raise the debt limit, which stood at $31.4 trillion when the bargain was struck. The total hit $32 trillion later that same month. The agreement suspended the ceiling until January 2025, so nothing in the law stands between the Treasury and further borrowing in the meantime.
Both parties say the debt has to be brought under control. They disagree on how. Rep. Randy Feenstra, an Iowa Republican, put it in three words: “It’s a crisis.”
The frog in the pot
JPMorgan chose a different image. In its 2024 outlook, the bank said the $34 trillion pile looked like a “boiling frog” problem for the economy. The metaphor, as the bank framed it, is about slow heat: a frog dropped into boiling water could jump out, but one in water that warms gradually never notices until it is too late. IANS carried the warning on January 8, 2024, and noted that the debt was expected to reach the $34 trillion mark that month.
The bank’s worry is the cost of carrying the debt. Higher deficits and ballooning debt servicing costs could become unsustainable, JPMorgan cautioned. Its read on Washington was blunt: “But the US doesn’t look likely to cut back its discretionary spending anytime soon.”
The Congressional Budget Office has put a date on the squeeze. By its estimate, the government’s entitlement spending, other mandatory spending and net interest payments on the debt will together exceed total federal revenue by the early 2030s. Economists have been raising concerns for years, IANS wrote, and the calls from bankers have grown louder as the government keeps borrowing at record volumes.
Voters were already uneasy
The public mood was sour. A Fox News poll taken in December found more than three-quarters of registered voters saying the economy was not in good shape. That included 78% who rated it only fair or poor, against 21% who called it good. Negative views crossed party lines: 61% of Democrats and 93% of Republicans. Among independents, 85% saw the economy in a bad light.
The same poll found more than three times as many respondents saying the Biden administration’s economic policies had hurt them personally as said those policies had helped.
Sources
- 'Mounting national debt at $34 trillion a boiling frog situation for US economy'
- US national debt nears $34 trillion; majority of voters say economy is in bad shape | FOX 32 Chicago
