U.S. National Debt Hits $33 Trillion

America’s national debt hit a historic $33 trillion on Monday, Treasury Department data shows.

The United States exceeded its debt ceiling in January. Instead of dealing with it, Congress suspended the debt ceiling altogether on June 2. Since then, the U.S. has added another $1.6 trillion to its national debt.

Looming shutdown: Low on funding and unable to pay its bills, the government is facing a shutdown. Unless Congress passes 12 bills by September 30 or agrees on a short-term extension, certain federal agencies will be forced to temporarily close on October 1.

As lawmakers drift from one short-term fiscal crisis to the next, our national debt just keeps piling up, trillion after trillion. After the debt ceiling showdown in June, we crossed the $32 trillion debt milestone. Now, as we stare down a potential government shutdown just three months later, we have raced past $33 trillion in red ink.
—Michael Peterson, ceo of Peter G. Peterson Foundation

Deeper and deeper: It is expected that the U.S. will owe creditors over $50 trillion by the end of this decade. That’s adding nearly $17 trillion to the debt in less than seven years. Data from the Congressional Budget Office predicts that number to nearly double within three decades.

Since interest rates are climbing, the nation’s interest payments are becoming the fastest-growing part of the federal budget. By 2051, it is believed that the nation’s interest payments will exceed its spending on all mandatory and discretionary programs, including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

Prophecy says: The Bible says America was destined to be one of the wealthiest nations in the world. And for a time, it was. But now it is struggling with a financial crisis unlike any this world has ever seen. This too was prophesied in Scripture.

To learn how both America’s fortune and its bankruptcy were prophesied, read The United States and Britain in Prophecy.