One economist recently warned of the connection between increased government spending and increased personal debt among American citizens. With a new, bloated federal budget coming from Congress, this is indeed a sobering warning.

Heritage Foundation research fellow and public finance economist EJ Antoni highlighted how damaging government spending of taxpayer money is for ordinary American families in a March 12 piece. Even as the government merrily continues down the path of national bankruptcy and Biden falsely claims his economy is not a disaster, Americans’ credit card debt hit a record high.

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As of the end of 2023, Americans had a record $1.13 trillion in credit card debt. The cards Americans are relying on for basic bills and necessities charge $240 billion in annual interest, Antoni explained. The Biden administration devalued the dollar with its extravagant spending, worsening the crisis. Antoni put some context on this cost-of-living crisis as 60% of US families live paycheck to paycheck, and workers have to take on extra jobs:

From January 2021 to June 2022, real (inflation-adjusted) average weekly earnings fell 5.1%. By January 2024, three years after Biden took office, real earnings were still down 4.4%. The real value of the typical American family’s weekly paycheck fell $85 over that time, despite growing $270…

It gets worse. Many Americans racked up credit-card debt when they had interest rates at or near 0%. With the expiration of those introductory offers and the rapid rise in interest rates over the last few years, financing costs on credit cards have shattered previous records.

Meanwhile, the cost of living is skyrocketing higher than Hunter Biden on cocaine. Too many families keep having to take on more debt to pay off both current expenses and the previous debt’s interest, Antoni wrote. With inflation at a 40-year high, interest rates are of course high as well.

Amidst all this, government spending “causes inflation that necessitates borrowing, and it makes that borrowing more expensive,” Antoni explained. Not that the federal government isn’t also driving itself ever deeper in debt which it cannot pay. Taxpayers are now shelling out $1 trillion every year just to pay our national debt’s interest. That’s the equivalent of more than 40% of Americans’ personal income taxes all just to service the debt, not to pay any of the other many, many other agencies and programs the government has.

Under Biden, a staggering $6.5 trillion has been added to the national debt, according to Antoni:

Last year, I projected that interest would consume a record percentage of our economy by 2025 and the nonpartisan Congression Budget Office has just agreed with that forecast. Politicians have racked up so much debt on the nation’s credit card that interest will soon be the federal government’s biggest expense.

The Federal Reserve can print money at politicians’ behest, but the problem remains as real and dangerous as ever, especially with an international trend of de-dollarization. As for ordinary Americans, they can’t just keep demanding ever more of other people’s money for foolish projects as politicians do. As Antoni said, “Every time the federal budget increases, the family budget decreases.”