The gargantuan national debt is finally starting to matter.

Usual wobbles in the market for Treasury securities suggest the US government may finally be issuing more debt than investors can absorb. The annual deficit normally shrinks in a year with strong economic growth, yet it ballooned 23% in 2023 to $1.7 trillion, the biggest budget hole ever for a year with no emergencies. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says addressing the $34 trillion national debt should be an “urgent” priority.

Yet it’s not.

Yahoo Finance decided to settle at least one question: Who’s responsible for all that debt in the first place? The unsurprising answer: just about everybody. Republicans and Democrats alike have passed laws and imposed policies that have pushed the debt from healthy levels to unmanageable ones during the last 25 years. Many voters bemoan the vast national debt, yet the electorate has broadly supported — and benefited from — many of the policy moves that created it, through lower taxes and plusher government benefits.

Approved ~ FS