U.S. National Debt Ticking Time Bomb

The U.S. national debt stands at $39 trillion. Then again, it does not stand. It keeps climbing. You can watch it on the US National Debt Clock website. It's mesmerizingly scary. To say the national debt is unsustainable is to state the obvious, but few seem to believe it other than some leaders in Washington, DC, perhaps some economists et al. But even with President Donald Trump's emphasis on reducing the size of the federal government and lowering the national debt - remember, he created the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) - still, the naitonal debt has climbed precipitously under both of his administrations. Other politicians seem to want to just kick the can down the road for someone else to address. But how far we can kick that can before the US exepriences a financial collapse is up for debate. Certainly, this needs more attention for debt has helped to destroy many historical empires and great countries. The USA is not invulnerable. For more Christian commentary see my website at www.rexmrogers.com or check my Youtube Channel @DrRexRogers. #nationaldebt #financialcollapse #paythepiper

Transcript

Does anyone believe that ignoring a ticking time bomb is a good strategy? Apparently, that’s the view of most of the Washington, DC establishment regarding the US national debt.

Hi, I’m Rex Rogers and this is episode #258 of Discerning What Is Best, a podcast applying unchanging biblical principles in a rapidly changing world, and a Christian worldview to current issues and everyday life.

The U.S.A. is responsible for a national debt now surpassing $39 trillion and growing.

President Donald J. Trump has spoken often about lowering the national debt and reducing the size of the federal government, and he has launched administrative initiatives to do both. Remember the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a Trump Administration initiative? DOGE was officially established by an executive order, January 20, 2025. Cutting excess regulations and spending within the federal government is its primary objective.

“Proponents of DOGE have described it as a project to make the government smaller and more efficient by cutting government spending and downsizing the federal workforce. Critics have described DOGE as a project to make the federal government conform to the Trump administration's political ideology…About 300,000 United States federal civil service layoffs have been announced by the second Trump administration, almost all of them attributed to the Department of Government Efficiency.” 

DOGE claims it has thus far saved the American taxpayer some $215 billion or $1,335.40 per taxpayer.

Then there’s that pesky fraud thing. According to the “Government Accountability Office (GAO), the federal government ‘loses between $233 billion and $521 billion annually to fraud in improper payments.’.. Medicare and Medicaid account for more than half (53 percent) of the fraudulent losses.” Now to say the least, an almost $300 billion range is a rather broadly defined estimate.  

Yet for all the Trump Administration’s efforts, in 2017 when Trump Administration 1 took office, the national debt was $19.9 trillion and when he departed office in 2021, the national debt was $27.75 trillion, an increase of $7.85 trillion. When Mr. Trump took office for Trump Administration 2 in 2025, the national debt was $37.1 trillion, and it now stands at $39.9 trillion, an increase of $2.8 trillion.

So for whatever work the Trump Administration has accomplished vis-à-vis debt, “the federal government is a vast money transfer machine. It spends hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars each year on subsidy programs—from the massive Medicare to hundreds of more obscure programs that most people have never heard of. There are more than 1,800 federal subsidy programs…The Government Accountability Office estimates that there are about $17 billion of improper Medicare payments each year, including fraudulent and erroneous overpayments to health care providers…Abuses do not just stem from occasional overbillings by doctors, but involves organized looting of health care programs by criminals…The GAO puts the cost of improper Medicaid payments at $33 billion, or about 10.5 percent of the program’s total spending.”

“All kinds of people are using the federal budget as a cookie jar to garner benefits to which they are not entitled. Families seek improper benefits through subsidies such as the school lunch program. Hospitals rip off taxpayers by double billing Medicare and Medicaid. Criminals loot subsidy programs such as food stamps. 

Owners of nonprofit groups that are supposed to aid the needy line their own pockets with taxpayer funds…Fraud and abuse generate a catch-22 for policymakers who support spending programs. On the one hand, fraud is clearly a waste of money and should be stopped. On the other hand, minimizing fraud requires extensive bureaucratic rules and heavy enforcement, which reduces program efficiency.” 

The total national debt has grown by $86,271.01 per second for the past year.

Point of interest:  “the United States has been completely debt-free exactly once in its history — in January 1835 under President Andrew Jackson. Jackson was fiercely opposed to federal borrowing and made eliminating the national debt a central mission of his presidency. Jackson vetoed spending bills, refused to renew the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, and aggressively sold federal lands to raise revenue. By January 1835, he had paid off the entire balance of approximately $33 million — making the U.S. the only major nation in history to achieve zero federal debt. The debt-free period lasted only about one year. The Panic of 1837, triggered by speculative lending and Jackson's own banking policies, plunged the country into a severe recession. The government was forced to borrow again, and the national debt has grown continuously ever since.” 

There are many reasons national debt and annual budget deficits are bad for the country.  Among them,

1)   Interest costs are growing rapidly. 

2)   Key investments in our future are at a risk. 

3)   Rising debt means fewer economic opportunities for Americans. 

4)   Less flexibility to respond to crises. 

The good news is there are many solutions for resolving the debt problem. The bad news is all the proposed solutions involve getting politicians to agree and to act.

“As of April 2026, interest payments on the national debt account for approximately 17% of total federal spending for the fiscal year. These costs reached $623 billion by March 2026, with interest expenses becoming one of the fastest-growing major components of the federal budget.”

To state the obvious, this is unsustainable. We either deal with this now or we will reap the negative results later. There is no happy ending of the story that begins with us kicking the can down the road. 

And here is another scary note. The recent interaction of the U.S.A. and NATO regarding the Iran war should tell us something. If America’s finances collapse under the weight of overwhelming, unsustainable debt, no one will come to our aid. No one will bail us out. Yes, it is true that when Greece got upside down financially in 2010, eventually a few European Union countries provided aid packages and today Greece has finally gotten back to some economic equilibrium.

If the U.S. goes under financially, it’s another story, partly due to size and money, but also due, among our allies, likely disinterest in helping us. Again, look what happened when we called for support against the terrorist regime in Iran.

Unsustainable debt has historically been one of the key factors bringing down empires and great countries—Ottoman, Russian, and Spanish Empires all buckled to massive financial strain. Sooner than any of the political leaders of empire thought, the empire declined and disappeared. It’s not melodramatic or ahistorical to say the USA is not invulnerable. 

Today, we are blessed with better food, health, and medical resources. We are blessed with longer lifespans. So, we are living longer than FDR and company foresaw when they set up the Social Security program in the late 1930s and longer with more people than LBJ and company foresaw when they set up Medicare and Medicaid in the 1960s. These three so-called entitlement programs are predicted to fail financially in 2032-2033. But our politicians are whistling in the graveyard. 

Another thing:  debt is not just a financial issue. It is a moral one. Debt means loss of freedom and autonomy.

From a Christian perspective,

-       Debt must be repaid.

-       Debt should not be incurred in a manner that presumptuously passes the problem to the next generation.

-       Failure to repay is considered stealing.

-       Debt symbolizes a lack of contentment.

-       Interest on debt is a waste of resources.

-       Ignoring debt is dangerous.

-       Debt could block us from receiving God’s intended blessings.

-       We are to leave something for our children. 

The U.S. national debt is in one sense not yours or mine to control, but in another sense, it may be, for we are still a government of, by, and for the people. We can let our representatives know that in our view, debt matters, and we’d rather not wait for a crisis like a stock market crash, depression, insolvency, bankruptcy, foreclosures, fiscal collapse, or financial ruin.

Well, we’ll see you again soon. This podcast is about Discerning What Is Best. 

If you find this thought-provoking and helpful, follow us on your favorite podcast platform. For more Christian commentary, see my website, r-e-x-m as in Martin, that’s rexmrogers.com, or check my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers.

And remember, it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm.

© Rex M. Rogers – All Rights Reserved, 2026   

*This podcast blog may be reproduced in whole or in part with a full attribution statement. Contact me or read more commentary on current issues and events at www.rexmrogers.com/ or my YouTube channel @DrRexRogers, or connect with me at www.linkedin.com/in/rexmrogers.