America’s $40 Trillion Debt Problem Is Bigger Than Washington

by Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich and former Federal Reserve Bank President Thomas Hoenig examine how the national debt doubled in less than a decade and what it will take to change course.

The federal debt has crossed $40 trillion, reaching a milestone few Americans could have imagined only a generation ago. Even more troubling is how quickly it happened. In this episode of Newt’s World, Newt Gingrich sits down with economist Thomas Hoenig, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City and former vice chairman of the FDIC, to examine how decades of federal spending, borrowing, and extraordinarily easy monetary policy helped create the situation America faces today.

Hoenig argues that the problem goes far beyond a number on the federal balance sheet. As interest payments consume a growing share of federal resources, government borrowing competes with private investment, inflation threatens purchasing power, and future generations inherit the consequences of decisions made today. Yet the conversation is not simply a warning. Gingrich and Hoenig look to periods after World War II and during the balanced-budget years of the 1990s as evidence that America can change direction. The question is whether political leaders can build the public understanding and discipline necessary to do it before $40 trillion becomes $50 trillion.

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