'This Fiscal Path Is Unsustainable': Chuck Grassley Issues Grave Warning On National Debt

Added: 2026-05-13

[00:00:00]Last week, I held 12 Q&As in 12 different counties during our Senate recess.

[00:00:12]Not in every county, but in some counties a question like this comes up.

[00:00:17]What are you going to do about the national debt?

[00:00:21]I usually say to the person asking the question, you could have asked me an easier question.

[00:00:28]So, I come to the floor to speak to an announcement that was made last week, a nation an announcement that ought to scare all Americans, but particularly those of us in the Congress of the United States, and it was not a surprise announcement.

[00:00:48]The United States recently eclipsed a fiscal milestone.

[00:00:55]At the end of March, the nation's publicly held debt surpassed the value of all goods and services produced in our economy.

[00:01:08]Another way to say that is our national debt as a percentage of our gross national product was more than 100%.

[00:01:24]Outside of a momentary blip during the pandemic, the nation hasn't exceeded this mark since 1946.

[00:01:36]Passing this threshold should be a wake-up call to Congress to get the nation's fiscal house in order.

[00:01:46]In 1946, debt relative to the economy hit its peak and precipitously declined thereafter.

[00:01:59]thanks to the end of World War II.

[00:02:03]Today, it's just the opposite.

[00:02:08]Our debt is expected to grow faster than the economy indefinitely.

[00:02:16]And it ought to be a wake-up call to all of us in the Congress of the United States.

[00:02:22]In fact, interest on the debt alone is costing Americans taxpayers $1 trillion annually.

[00:02:32]And within 10 years, interest costs would top $2 trillion a year.

[00:02:40]The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office that does this scoring reminds us with every budget update that this fiscal path is unsustainable.

[00:02:56]Economist Herb Stein famously equipped, {quote} If something cannot go on forever, it will stop. {end of quote} Our debt cannot grow faster than the economy forever.

[00:03:13]It eventually will stop.

[00:03:17]The question is when and how.

[00:03:21]We have this choice as members of Congress representing the people of this country that are very concerned about this situation.

[00:03:32]We can either work together today to gradually turn the corner or wait until there is a crisis where draconian austere austere aus sterity matters measures are forced upon us by the nationals uh creditors.

[00:03:56]For the good of the nation, we must embrace the former.

[00:04:01]The former option. I yield the floor and suggest the answer is the latter.