I’d rather not leave the house so I don’t get into more debt

Interest Payments Outpace Military Spending

The federal government is currently spending massive resources to service its debt. According to the Treasury Department, the national debt had surpassed $38.7 trillion as of Friday, amounting to more than $113,000 per American. Data maintained by Republicans on Congress’s Joint Economic Committee indicates the debt has grown at a pace of nearly $77,000 per second over the past year.

In December, Congress authorized a record $901 billion in military spending for the year, a figure about $8 billion more than the Trump administration had requested. However, the costs of servicing the national debt are immense. Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok, writing in his Daily Spark newsletter, noted that interest alone on the debt runs at $3 billion a day, exceeding annual federal spending on Medicare or Medicaid.

Recession Preparedness and the Limits of Fiscal Policy

Apollo chief economist Torsten Slok warns that the U.S. enters this period of economic uncertainty with less fiscal flexibility than at any point in modern history. He argues the country is approaching a potential downturn with this little fiscal buffer for the first time in modern history. Traditionally, the government responds to a downturn by cutting interest rates and increasing deficit spending to stimulate growth. However, Slok argues that that big, ugly, black hole of our debt is slowly sucking out the ability of the central bank to respond to recessions.

The Federal Reserve’s ability to lower borrowing costs is constrained by persistent inflation. Slok wrote that inflation is proving stickier than the Fed expected, driven by oil prices, tariffs, and immigration restrictions that have tightened the labor supply. Consequently, the Fed cannot cut interest rates as aggressively as it did in 2008 or 2020 without risking a fresh inflation spiral.

Legislative Challenges and Political Deadlock

Addressing the federal budget has become a primary, yet difficult, objective. In his address to a joint session of Congress in March 2025, President Donald Trump declared, In the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years: balance the Federal budget. To address the deficit, the administration introduced a “gold cardvisa program, allowing wealthy immigrants to pay $1 million to move to the United States. President Trump described it aslike the green card, but better and more sophisticated.”

On Dec. 19, the administration announced it had raised more than $1.3 billion through gold card sales. However, this total represents only about 0.07% of the federal government’s $1.78 trillion budget deficit in the fiscal year that ended in September. Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Spokane Republican, noted in a Feb. 18 interview, We’re $39 trillion in debt. We’re running annual 20% budget deficits.

Community Resilience Amidst Economic Stagnation

While national fiscal policy struggles with systemic debt, the human impact of economic instability is felt at the local level. Anna Price, the community lead at St Mary Magdalene, notes that work to build community resilience is essential. Many people get into a crisis partly because they're on their own and they've got no-one around them to help them make sense of things and help them move forward in life, she says. Price observes cycles of generational dependence on benefits, noting, The cycles that I see of families, the kind of generational dependence on benefits, has meant that for some, they no longer have the skills or the upbringing to know how to hold down a job.

For those living in estates with high levels of unemployment, Price notes that the idea of employment is very, very, very challenging. She adds, It is really heartbreaking, because it's a cycle that you feel like we're trapped in and can't easily see a way out of that.

Government initiatives, such as the Department for Work and Pensions’ Connect to Work programme, aim to transition individuals from welfare to employment. A spokesperson for the Department for Work and Pensions stated the programme was expected to support 4,000 people in Norfolk by 2029. We're committed to moving from a welfare state to a working state, giving people in Norfolk and beyond the support they need to move out of poverty and into work, the spokesperson added. The department further noted, We will always work with anyone with an outstanding debt to find an affordable way to repay, which could include pointing individuals towards free debt advice and support services.