{"id":2601582,"date":"2026-05-12T08:31:58","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:31:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-our-national-debt-jeopardizes-families-futures\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T08:35:35","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:35:35","slug":"how-our-national-debt-jeopardizes-families-futures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/how-our-national-debt-jeopardizes-families-futures\/","title":{"rendered":"How Our National Debt Jeopardizes Families\u2019 Futures"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">14<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fhow-our-national-debt-jeopardizes-families-futures%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2601582&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The piece argues that even though America\u2019s debt has occasionally exceeded GDP before, the current trajectory-driven by <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >persistent deficits-poses long-term economic damage<\/a>.It notes that publicly held federal debt has surpassed 100% of GDP again (based on figures around March 31), while emphasizing that this level doesn\u2019t automatically cause an immediate crisis. Still,it claims the worsening budget outlook without a credible plan for fiscal stability will eventually harm future prosperity.<\/p>\n<p>Key projected effects include <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/janet-yellen-as-congress-for-billions-to-help-other-countries-debt-relief-climate-change-initiatives\/\" title=\"Janet Yellen As Congress For Billions To Help Other Countries\u2019 \u2018... Relief,\u2019 \u2018Climate Change\u2019 Initiatives\">higher interest rates<\/a> as Treasury must sell more bonds, which the author suggests would reduce housing affordability and hinder wealth-building-especially for younger people-by keeping them from entering real estate. The article also argues that higher borrowing costs could limit business investment, since investors may prefer bond yields over riskier ventures like small business lending or stocks. It further warns that policymakers might respond by pushing the Federal reserve to keep rates artificially low or even monetize debt,which could either prolong financial distortions or risk renewed inflation and losses for savers.<\/p>\n<p>the author attributes the debt problem to short political time horizons: lawmakers focused on near-term reelection avoid tough budget choices, leaving long-term consequences for later generations. The conclusion calls for voters to better understand the stakes and reward officials who make painful but necessary decisions now.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Contrary to what some on the right might believe, there are times when being in a red state is neither conservative nor positive. A recent Wall Street Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/opinion\/america-is-in-a-red-state-897f6855?mod=opinion_lead_pos5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">column<\/a>, titled \u201cAmerica Is in a Red State,\u201d explains why. <\/p>\n<p>By the end of the last quarter, the federal debt topped 100 percent of GDP. And this rising debt, fueled by <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/03\/12\/we-could-completely-get-rid-of-social-security-and-it-still-wouldnt-balance-the-u-s-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">persistent deficits<\/a>, will harm the country\u2019s economic prospects for generations in ways that today\u2019s politicians seem not to care much about.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Milestone Debt Growth<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/economy\/u-s-debt-tops-100-of-gdp-81c013d7?mod=trending_now_news_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> in the Journal noted, \u201cAs of March 31, the country\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/federal-fiscal-shortfall-nears-1-million-per-household\/\" title=\"Federal Fiscal Shortfall Nears  Million Per Household\">publicly held debt<\/a> was $31.265 trillion, while GDP over the preceding year was $31.216 trillion.\u201d It isn\u2019t the first time federal debt exceeded the size of the nation\u2019s economy; our debt set a record (at least for now) of 106 percent of GDP in 1946, just after World War II. Federal debt also exceeded GDP for a short time in 2020 during the coronavirus panic, as the economy shrank under widespread lockdowns and Washington engaged in a gusher of \u201cstimulus\u201d spending.<\/p>\n<p>Publicly held federal debt exceeding 100 percent of GDP won\u2019t automatically trigger a financial cataclysm. After all, total federal debt has exceeded GDP for some time now and <a href=\"https:\/\/fiscaldata.treasury.gov\/datasets\/debt-to-the-penny\/debt-to-the-penny\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">stands<\/a> at nearly $39 trillion. (The roughly $7.7 trillion difference between the two represents intragovernmental holdings \u2014 the debt the federal government owes itself, most notably the Treasury bonds held in the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds.)<\/p>\n<p>But as I have written on <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2026\/03\/12\/we-could-completely-get-rid-of-social-security-and-it-still-wouldnt-balance-the-u-s-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">many<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/06\/24\/two-trillion-dollar-deficits-show-washington-has-a-spending-problem\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">occasions<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/07\/06\/report-the-united-states-is-at-the-end-of-its-government-overspending-rope\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">previously<\/a>, the federal government\u2019s budgetary trajectory continues to worsen. It\u2019s one thing to incur temporary debts to face off an existential threat and then immediately work to pay off said indebtedness, as the United States did during and after World War II. It\u2019s quite another to run sizable deficits during relatively stable economic times and have neither a path to fiscal stability nor the political will to create such a path.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Real-Life Effects <\/strong> <\/h2>\n<p>In the absence of a financial crisis like those the Greek government faced over a decade ago, many families might wonder why they should care about abstract concepts like federal deficits and debt. The Journal <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/economy\/u-s-debt-tops-100-of-gdp-81c013d7?mod=trending_now_news_2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">article<\/a> lists some of the reasons why decades of fiscal profligacy will make current and future generations poorer.<\/p>\n<p>For starters, interest rates will rise. The growing debt burden requires the Treasury to issue more notes and bonds; getting the market to soak up that demand will lead to higher interest rates. As it is, the past several years have seen mortgage rates rise as the Federal Reserve (finally) stopped its <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/17\/how-the-federal-reserve-keeps-stoking-inflation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">money-printing policies<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>As federal debt increases, this trend of higher interest rates will only continue. It likely will crimp housing affordability, keep people locked in their homes, and <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/11\/03\/theres-no-soft-landing-waiting-for-the-millions-of-families-suffering-from-bidenomics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prevent younger generations<\/a> from getting on the ladder to build wealth via real estate.<\/p>\n<p>Higher interest rates will also make it more difficult for businesses, particularly smaller businesses, to attract capital to grow. After all, if investors can receive a high rate of \u201cguaranteed\u201d return by putting their money in the glut of bonds the Treasury will have to sell, then why should they take a risk by funding business loans or buying stock?<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Recurrence of Inflation?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>At its worst, rising federal debt would encourage the Federal Reserve to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/no-bidenomics-wont-end-in-a-soft-landing\/\" title=\"Bidenomics won&#039;t lead to a smooth outcome.\">interest rates arbitrarily low<\/a>, to keep the federal government\u2019s cost of borrowing more manageable. As appealing as this strategy might sound \u2014 President Trump has <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2025\/06\/27\/no-the-federal-reserve-shouldnt-monetize-the-national-debt-again\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">already suggested it<\/a> \u2014 it would only make matters worse.<\/p>\n<p>At its most extreme, the Fed could attempt to <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/11\/17\/how-the-federal-reserve-keeps-stoking-inflation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">print money<\/a> to drive down the absolute value of federal obligations \u2014 that is, monetizing the debt. But doing so could trigger a bout of inflation that may make pandemic-era \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/04\/17\/persistent-bidenflation-explains-why-americans-think-the-economy-is-poor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Bidenflation<\/a>\u201d look tame. Even at their mildest, loose interest rate policies to ease Washington\u2019s debt burden would impose a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2018\/10\/29\/attacking-federal-reserve-trump-actually-attacks-savers\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">tax on thrift<\/a> by devaluing the efforts of those who had worked hard over their lives to accumulate savings.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Political Time Horizons<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Our federal debt problem in many ways stems from flawed political incentives. Lawmakers focused on their reelection in a few months or years care little about whether the United States faces economic stagnation decades from now.<\/p>\n<p>The obvious solution lies in that time-honored self-help tool: the mirror. Americans need to understand the stakes and reward politicians who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/knowles-with-republicans-like-liz-cheney-and-mitt-romney-who-needs-democrats\/\" title=\"KNOWLES: With Republicans Like Liz Cheney And Mitt Romney, Who Needs Democrats?\">make tough choices<\/a> now, even if it results in short-term painful consequences on the spending and taxation fronts. Otherwise, H.L. Mencken\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.brainyquote.com\/quotes\/h_l_mencken_163179\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">aphorism<\/a> \u2014 \u201cdemocracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard\u201d \u2014 will bite Americans for decades to come.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<div>\n<p>      Chris Jacobs is founder and CEO of Juniper Research Group and author of the book &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/dp\/1645720020\">The Case Against Single Payer<\/a>.&#8221; He is on Twitter: <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/chrisjacobsHC\">@chrisjacobsHC<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In red states, maintaining deficits can be neither conservative nor beneficial<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":521,"featured_media":2601583,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Benjamin-Franklin-100-Bill.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[74263,5401,73714,78904,78343],"class_list":["post-2601582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-economic-impact-2","tag-families","tag-fiscal-policy-2","tag-national-debt-2","tag-public-finance-2"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/Benjamin-Franklin-100-Bill.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2601582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2601586,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2601582\/revisions\/2601586"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2601583"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2601582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2601582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2601582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}