Debt Despair?
Welcome to the Know the Difference Minute for Tuesday, September 19th. 
In 2013 I was asked when to start worrying about the size of the government’s debt. I said 10 years. Well, here we are and things have just gotten worse.
There is more than $33 trillion in US government debt outstanding. State and local governments add about $3.5 trillion onto that.
As a percentage of GDP, the U.S. is in a better position than Japan, so at least we have that going for us.
The federal government has spent $5.5 trillion since October 2022 and it has only collected $4 trillion. That’s not a sustainable path. Interest costs on the debt have gone from around 5% of the government’s spending to 11%.
To make debt sustainable requires aligning revenues with expenditures. Growth can cover over a multitude of fiscal sins, but so can bending the curve of spending.
I’m Brian Jacobsen, Chief Economist at Annex Wealth Management.  That is your Know the Difference Minute.