'Draining the Swamp' Means Fixing the Debt [View all]

"Drain the swamp" has been a popular rallying cry in recent American politics. Too often though, it's nothing more than a slogan about rooting out corruption or punishing political elites. Yet, draining the swamp isn’t just about eliminating corruption, it’s also about removing the toxic mix of complacency and cowardice that fills the halls of American government with what Theodore Roosevelt would call, timid souls.

Moody's recent downgrade of U.S. government debt is akin to walking into your doctor’s office and being told you’ve gained too much weight, your blood pressure is off the charts, and your cholesterol is through the roof. Rather than confront the rising tide of federal debt threatening our very quality of life, Washington essentially responded to the doctor’s diagnosis by washing down their coney-dog pizza, with a moose tracks milkshake and a Founders KBS.

Debt doesn’t knock us out overnight. Like clogged arteries, its damage builds slowly. At first, it’s just a little more interest to pay. Then it becomes harder to fund new priorities. Over time, it crowds out private investment, saps economic growth, and ties the hands of future generations.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal debt held by the public is projected to rise from 99 percent of GDP in 2024 to 116 percent by 2035 — a level not seen since the aftermath of World War II. By 2035, the federal government will be spending 30 percent of all tax revenue on interest payments, more than what we will be spending on national security or major programs like Medicaid and Social Security.

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