The United States is Headed Toward a Debt Crisis: Former VP Mike Pence

Mike Pence – former Vice President of the United States – believes his country is en route to a debt crisis within the next 25 to 30 years due to the government’s irresponsible fiscal policy.

Within 3 decades, he claimed that the nation’s debt could balloon to $150 trillion.

Insurmountable Debt

In an interview on CNBC’s Squawk Box on Wednesday, Pence commented on the United States’ record high inflation, pinning its cause largely on “unnecessary” covid relief spending from the Democratic party in 2021.  

The “real issue,” however, surrounds U.S. national debt, for which President Joe Biden’s current policy is “insolvency,” according to the former VP. 

“We’re looking at a debt crisis in this country over the next 25 years that is driven by entitlements and no one in Washington DC wants to talk about it,” said Pence.

U.S. national debt currently stands at roughly $32 trillion. That equates to nearly $250,000 in debt per every U.S. taxpayer and is 34% higher than the country’s $26 trillion GDP. As Pence explained, the last time national debt matched GDP was shortly after World War II. 

Persistent Federal budget deficits – now over $1.4 trillion annually – only continue to exacerbate the problem year after year, with projections showing that debt could expand by another $120 trillion in the next 30 years. 

If no action is taken until then, the only remaining solutions will be to “double payroll taxes or cut benefits to people that really need them.” However, more mild reforms could be taken today that would help reign in the debt without cutting people off from vital services. 

“I think the next president of the United States has got to square with the American people and we’ve got to take decisive and visionary steps to put our fiscal house in order,” he concluded.

Bitcoin and Debt

In 2021, senator Cynthia Lummis (R-WY) lambasted congress and the Biden administration for raising the debt ceiling and failing to address the “looming, predictable, massive issue,” of rising national debt. Unlike Pence, however, she characterized the issue as something ignored by both parties – not only Democrats. 

“Thank god for Bitcoin and other digital currencies that transcend the irresponsibility of governments – including our own,” she said at the time. 

A potential national debt spiral is often considered one of the ultimate bull cases for Bitcoin, as it will lead to a swell of money printing that boosts the value of all scarce assets.

Featured Image Courtesy of Bloomberg