Another warning that a national debt crisis is looming

In 2007, debt held by the public was 37 percent of gross domestic product, and it has since doubled to its current 74 percent. Assuming that current laws remain the same, the CBO projects that by the time a girl born today graduates from college in 2036, the nation’s debt will be as large as an entire year of U.S. economic output, and it will continue to grow.

In an alternative scenario under which Congress makes certain predictable policy changes, that point would be crossed even earlier, according to the CBO, merely 15 years from now.

Though Obama and his liberal supporters have identified insufficient levels of taxation on wealthier Americans as the major problem, the CBO report finds that revenue will increase in the coming decades, reaching 19.5 percent of the economy by 2039 — which is significantly higher than the 17.5 percent average over the last four decades.

The problem is that federal spending will accelerate at a much faster rate, reaching nearly 26 percent of the economy by the same year.