Patriots: For over 26 years, your generosity has made it possible to offer The Patriot Post without a subscription fee to military personnel, students, and those with limited means. Please support the 2024 Patriots' Day Campaign today.

August 25, 2016

How Big Is the U.S. Debt Bomb?

A new CBO report indicates the next 10 years could be dicey.

The Congressional Budget Office released its 10 year forecast of how much debt the U.S. is expected to accumulate by 2026 at current spending rates. And — surprise — the news isn’t good. The report relates some startling numbers, which are almost too large to comprehend. The national debt that currently stands at $19 trillion is forecasted to grow to $28 trillion in the next 10 years. That would put the nation’s debt at the terrifying level of 86% of GDP by 2026. The dramatic increase in government spending during Obama’s eight years in office shows little sign of slowing down even as the economy has continued to limp along at barely above a 1% growth rate.

Three areas of the highest government spending — accounting for 69% of the total annual budget — are Social Security, government health programs (Medicare, Medicaid and ObamaCare) and interest payments on the debt. Spending in these three areas is projected to increase to a whopping 77% of the annual budget by 2026. With the current rate of spending, other areas of the budget are expected to decrease as a portion of the whole. For example, defense spending is currently at 15% annually but is projected to drop to about 12% in a decade.

Clearly, the U.S. government has a spending problem — and it’s only getting worse. Unfortunately, neither presidential candidate seems inclined to address the issue at all, let alone offer any realistic plans for budgetary restraints. Today’s politicians are leaving the problem for tomorrow’s generations to sort out, and the bill is going to come due in a painful way.

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.