Carol Roth Gives an Example of Why 'Taking Action Now' on the Debt 'Is Entirely Critical'

Jacob B. | 3:13 PM on February 23, 2025

"Almost a quarter of every dollar taken in by the US govt from taxpayers goes to pay the interest on our debt," tweets Carol Roth. "This is one example of why taking action now is entirely critical."

Almost a quarter of every dollar taken in by the US govt from taxpayers goes to pay the interest on our debt.

This is one example of why taking action now is entirely critical.
— Carol Roth (@caroljsroth) February 23, 2025

It is not acceptable.

The U.S. total public debt outstanding as of February 20th, 2025, is recorded as totaling more than $36.2 trillion. Breaking down the total public debt among the total population is a way to put it into perspective. The current count of the USA population is more than 341.3 million. The total public debt outstanding to the penny divided by the total population equals $106,106.49. That is roughly the amount of the total debt share that could be attributed to each individual in the U.S.

More than $36 trillion in debt is a problem. The problem of it is going to continue until steps are taken to deal with it. As it grows at an increasingly steep pace, by more than $9 trillion since September of 2020, the problem becomes more burdensome, and what is needed to deal with the problem becomes more overwhelming.

The first step to deal with this problem is the cessation of reckless spending. The reckless spending must be stopped, not fiddled with or "baseline" cut. It must be stopped. That is part of it. The national debt elephant can be eaten one bite at a time, which is one cut of egregiously wasteful spending at a time.

A ballooning national debt has been a problem for many years. Too few politicians and elected leaders have discussed how to practically and actually deal with the problem, and too few have allocated political capital toward practically and actually dealing with the problem. The national debt bill is going to eventually be paid. The longer it is allowed to grow at an increasingly steeper pace, the more expensive that bill becomes.

There is no flouring it up. It is just not acceptable.