Since he was sworn in a little over two years ago, President Joe Biden has signed legislation and executive orders that have added $5 trillion to the national debt over the next 10 years. Over those same two years, the interest the federal government must pay on its debt has doubled from $345 billion a year to nearly $700 billion. The Congressional Budget Office estimates those interest costs will double again within a decade. At that point, 20% of federal taxes will be spent paying interest costs alone.

The federal government’s spending habits are in desperate need of a new direction, and unfortunately, the exhaustion of the Treasury Department’s legal authority to borrow money is one of the only times lawmakers take deficit reduction seriously.