National debt: Why Congress no longer cares

“Now would be a very good time for Washington to bring back its debt obsession,” said Rogé Karma in The Atlantic. That’s because the perfect storm for turning the federal deficit into a “genuine crisis” has arrived. In recent years, the Federal Reserve has “raised interest rates dramatically in an effort to tame inflation.” Since that means the federal government has to pay higher interest on its bonds, “government payments on debt interest soared to $881 billion in 2024.” That’s more than the U.S. spent last year on national defense. At the same time, President Trump’s tariff policies have led “almost every credible” forecast this year to anticipate slowed economic growth. Then there’s Trump’s “big, beautiful,” and bloated budget bill, which would add “more than $3 trillion to the deficit over the next decade.” The warning signals are flashing red, and if Washington continues to ignore them, “very bad things can happen,” from…