An American Parable: Now Is the Time to Rein in Our National Debt

By Wendell Vinson Published on April 28, 2025

“A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

That attitude toward federal spending is attributed to the great Illinois Sen. Everett Dirksen. It still holds true today but with one exception: Today, you’d have to use the word “trillion” in place of “billion.”

Just log on to The National Debt clock to see what we’re up against. But be careful. If you watch those numbers spiral too long, you might get vertigo.

Each day, the deficit spirals higher as new tranches of bureaucratic waste bring scrutiny. Here are some of the notorious examples of wasteful spending revealed in Sen. Rand Paul’s latest “Festivus” report.

So Much Waste

The federal government spent $10 billion last year on unused buildings nationwide. Sources say several of the structures stand “almost entirely empty.” Taxpayers want to know why they’re paying to maintain and furnish vacant or underutilized structures nationwide.

The Department of the Interior recently “invested” over $12 million to build a luxury pickleball complex with 30 courts on a 5.43-acre lot in Las Vegas.

The prior administration doled out some $15.5 billion for electric vehicles that suffer from limited range and a lack of charging stations. The money was distributed via the Energy Department, and included $2 billion from Inflation Reduction Act grants.

Under Biden, the Department of Health & Human Services invested $419,470 to study whether isolated, starving rats are more likely to seek cocaine.

The Pentagon invested over $90 billion on sadly deficient Littoral Combat Ships. The new vessels have so many problems that one Pentagon analyst questioned whether they could complete a one-month mission. Several LCS ships have already been mothballed; one of them was only two years old when removed from active service.

Feeling the Pain

As these examples suggest, our fiscal challenges are really just beginning. This year, only a few weeks after we celebrate Independence Day, our national debt is expected to cross the $37 trillion mark. By any measure, it’s a mind-boggling total –- a staggering $273,500 of debt per U.S. household.

If that seems like an alarming number, it should. Just paying the interest on federal debt will cost taxpayers $952 billion this year, according to CBO estimates.

That’s more than the combined FY 2025 budgets for the departments of Defense ($850 billion), Housing and Urban Development ($72.6 billion), the Environmental Protection Agency ($11 billion), and the Food and Drug Administration ($7.2 billion).

America’s looming budget challenges bring to mind the memorable scene in A Few Good Men, when Jack Nicholson bellows at accuser Tom Cruise, “You can’t handle the truth!”

Here’s the truth: The current fiscal path of the United States of America, the world’s beacon of freedom, is simply “unsustainable.” And that’s not just an opinion. It comes from the Treasury Department’s annual Financial Report of the United States Government.

Forced to Change

Last year alone, the U.S. deficit exceeded $1.8 trillion. That simply cannot continue.

We simply must change the fiscal path we’re on, lest we eventually jeopardize U.S. fiscal stability and imperil the economic security of future generations. No doubt you’ve heard D.C. denizens who love to cry “autocracy” and “chaos” whenever DOGE, President Donald Trump, or Congress take strong fiscal actions.

But here’s what they don’t seem to realize: Maintaining the current status quo – indulging, that is, in the time-honored Washington practice of kicking the can down the road – simply won’t work anymore.

Inaction is not an option. In fact, billionaire hedge fund manager Ray Dalio recently warned that the U.S. could experience “an economic heart attack” in three years if something isn’t done to constrain our spiraling national debt.

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The Congressional Budget Office now projects that our national debt could exceed an unprecedented 166% of GDP by 2054 unless we change course. It warns that this would pose “significant risks” to the economy and likely endanger U.S. national security.

So here’s the bottom line: The time to act to address America’s debt problem is now. Today. No more sweeping it under the proverbial rug.

Our collective call as Americans to practice good stewardship supports this common sense, moral imperative. The good news is that out-of-control spending is one dystopia that can clearly be avoided. All it takes is the support of common-sense Americans who understand that you can’t spend your way to prosperity.

Our faith is strong: We believe our fellow Americans support the DOGE efficiency push and the solid stewardship it represents, as well as the need to make lower taxes permanent. We will require our government to live within its means, and insist our elected leaders do the same.

Together, let’s be the faithful stewards America needs to make the dreams of a new Golden Age come true.

Wendell Vinson is the cofounder of CityServe International, a church empowerment network that provides basic essentials and disaster relief to communities in need throughout the United States and around the world.