The nation is headed on a destructive path to an overwhelming pile of national debt, Financial Services Committee Chairman Jeb Hensarling, R-TX, said during the first hearing in a series planned to focus attention on the impact of the nation’s debt on the economy.
“We’ve had many sobering warnings that our nation is headed for a crisis,” Hensarling emphasized.
He quoted economics writer Robert Samuelson saying that the nation’s problem to deal with the problem would trigger an economic and political and death spiral.
“In the last six years we’ve accumulated more national debt than we did in our nation’s first 200 years," Hensarling said.
However, the problem: that level of debt was episodic and temporary. Today it is structural and unsustainable.
And as a costly result, it will keep people unemployed and underemployed due to the likely hike in taxes.
It is estimated the nation will spend $233 billion this year on interest payments alone, Hensarling said.
