Our National Debt, Visualized
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On May 4, 2023, BPC Chief Economist and Vice President Jason Fichtner testified before the Senate Committee on the Budget about the debt limit and federal debt. In that testimony, he provided the following to help Senators visualize the size of our nation’s $31.46 trillion debt.
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According to the Congressional Budget Office, this year’s deficit is estimated to be $1.4 trillion, with annual deficits averaging $2.0 trillion over the next 10 years. A $1.4 trillion deficit is slightly higher than the $1.2 trillion spent on Social Security benefits last year. Further, the national debt now stands just over $31 trillion. It is hard to comprehend a number this large. As an illustration, imagine you had $100 bills. A $10,000 stack of $100 bills would measure about one-half an inch thick. A pile of $100 bills totaling $1 million dollars would fit inside a standard school backpack, while $100 million would fit on a standard construction pallet. And $1 billion of $100 bills would be 10 standard construction pallets. But $1 trillion of $100 bills…a million million…a thousand billion…would require 1,000 of those $1 billion pallets, which double stacked would take up an entire football field. That is $1 trillion. There are 32 football teams in the NFL…just enough NFL stadiums to hold the nation’s $31.46 trillion national debt printed in $100 bills. Our fiscal problem is real. According to CBO, the national debt is on track to exceed $46 trillion in 2033, or 118% of GDP. The interest payments alone will near $1.5 trillion in 2033 — more than our nation is planning to spend on national defense.
Fichtner’s full testimony is available here.
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