You should be worried about America’s national debt. There are 35 trillion reasons for you to be concerned. It’s 35 trillion, with a “t”, followed by “rillion.” Elon Musk has said that the United States is about to go bankrupt because of this amount of debt.

Billionaire Elon Musk said Monday that the United States was on the fast track towards defaulting on its debt. This continues to accelerate, after surpassing a record of $35 trillion only weeks ago.

Musk was asked during a sit-down interview at the All-In Podcast’s All-In Summit 2024 about his plan to create a government efficiency panel, which he agreed to lead if former President Trump won a second term as president.

Musk stated that if Trump were to win, we would have the opportunity to deregulate the government and reduce its size. This is a rare chance. Musk said, “America is going bankrupt very quickly because of the regulations. Everyone seems to be whistling past graveyards on this issue.”

But will we? It’s hard to ignore the casual disregard Washington and others have shown for this issue. Since World War II, every administration has increased the debt. In the last decade, it has grown out of control. Musk worries that America will go bankrupt. But he is wrong. His use of future tense was inaccurate and insufficient. America is already broke and there’s no way to get out.

He said that interest payments were increasing rapidly and eventually, “all we will be able to pay is the interest.”

Musk said, “It is like someone who has too much debt on their credit cards.” “This is not a happy ending. We have to cut back on spending.”

It would be helpful to reduce spending, but it would need to be more than just the usual reductions in the rate of growth that make Congressional Democrats clutch their pearls and search for the nearest fainting sofa. It will take a person who is not afraid to use a meat-axe, rather than a rapier, to bring the federal imperial Colussus into control. Javier Milei, from Argentina, has shown us how to do it – cut, cut, and then more cuts. Eliminate entire Cabinet-level departments.

We are indeed in a financial emergency, but it is also an existential one. Our nation’s very survival may be on the line. There are three possible ways to get out of this mess, as I have written before.

• It is possible to grow out of this situation, but we are likely past the point where there is no turning back.
• We can inflate ourselves out of this, but that would mean plunging Zimbabwe into an inflation crisis.
• We can repudiate the debt we owe, causing a global recession and ending the United States’ primary role in geopolitics.

Elon Musk has every right to be worried. I’m worried that he isn’t concerned enough.

There should be a written guideline that outlines the limits of the federal government.