U.S. Debt Is Now Bigger Than the Economy. Thats Not the Real Problem.

For years, deficit hawks have been groping for ways to shock politicians and the public into getting serious about the skyrocketing federal debt.They hoped they had finally found the right talking point when the United States recently reached a disturbing new milestone: Debt had shot past 100 percent of gross domestic product.“We’ve heard plenty of alarm bells in the past few years about our fiscal path, but this one rings especially loudly,” wrote the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the organization that calculated the March level of federal debt held by the public as a share of G.D.P.

The like-minded Peterson Foundation called it “an alarming fiscal milestone.”The problem is, few people seemed particularly alarmed, outside of a flurry of somber speeches and opinion essays.Within a week of the reporting of the statistical landmark, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was on Capitol Hill defending the largest Pentagon budget request in American history.And the Senate proceeded with efforts to pass a $72 billion immigration enforcement package through reconciliation, bypassing a potential filibuster and waiving its own rules against deficit-increasing legislation.It’s not that surpassing the 100 percent milestone has meaningfully changed anything.

Debt isn’t like a reservoir that starts overflowing when it exceeds 100 percent of capacity.“Ninety-nine is a bad number.

One hundred one is worse than 100.We make a big deal out of 100 because it’s a round number,” said Michael Peterson, the chief executive of the Peterson Foundation.What should be more disturbing is this: There’s no end in sight.

And if debt hawks can’t spur action with even this milestone, what is to be done?We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Th...