You know a problem is looming when even Congress starts paying attention. That problem at the moment is the ever-metastasizing national debt and the endless federal budget deficits which feed its growth. Of course, acknowledging the danger posed by a problem isn’t the same as doing something constructive to address the issue.

“The national debt has reemerged as a paramount economic issue for the first time in nearly a decade, raising alarms from Congress to Wall Street. But even with all the outward drama, there’s little evidence that Washington is ready to stem the tide of red ink,” Politico’s Eleanor Mueller and Victoria Guida wrote this week. “In interviews with a dozen members of both parties on Capitol Hill, even GOP lawmakers acknowledged an inability to reach consensus within their own ranks on the path forward. Democrats want to focus on raising taxes, not spending reductions — and some don’t agree that deficits are an urgent issue at all.”

National debt now stands at $33.7 trillion. “Over the past 100 years, the U.S. federal debt has increased from $404 B in 1923 to $33.17 T in 2023,” the U.S. Treasury Department helpfully offers in an explainer that’s already out of date. That’s in constant 2023 dollars—yes, adjusted for inflation. That $33.7 trillion represents 123 percent of gross domestic product, a measure of the size of the entire U.S. economy.