On Feb. 5, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned the U.S. Congress that America’s fiscal health is at risk, pointing out that our $36 trillion debt, growing at nearly $2 trillion a year, is unsustainable. The warning, “We’re calling on Congress and the Administration to act NOW to develop and implement a strategy to address this acute challenge. Inaction could result in great difficulties for many Americans and impede policymakers’ flexibility to respond to future economic recessions or unexpected events.”

As alarming as this is, it is not new. The GAO has been shouting it in the halls of Congress for years because Congress has refused to take the drastic measures to stop this debt insanity.

And it’s not only the GAO warning us of the pending financial doomsday. Ray Dalio, the founder of Bridgewater Associates, the world’s largest hedge fund, likens this debt to a national heart attack. He said, “This debt, it begins to become like plaque in the arteries. You can measure it in the arteries and see how it constricts the circulatory system.”

This year, the interest alone on our debt will be more than we spend on national defense or Medicare! The solution is an easy one, but not for Congress. They have to either drastically cut spending or drastically increase taxes. They won’t do either. They will once again ignore the warnings and just increase the debt limit allowing us to borrow even more.

If one were to point fingers of blame, all fingers would be pointed directly at Congress. They like to brag that they “hold the purse strings”, but they forget the money in the purse is ours, not theirs, and we are demanding they stop placing trillions of debt onto our children and grandchildren.

The way I see it, Congress wants trillions of dollars of debt. If not, then they should reduce it. They have that power, yet they continually do what they do best, which is spend, spend, spend, giving us a government we can no longer afford, even though we as taxpayers send more to Washington every year, and then they choose to spend more anyway.

For my entire adult life, I have heard of the huge amount of waste, fraud, and abuse that has become woven into the budget. Congress has oversight over many departments, including the power to improve efficiency and effectiveness of government operations and detect waste, fraud, and abuse or illegal conduct. Have they used this power to eliminate the waste, fraud, and abuse of our dollars?

And now, President Trump and Elon Musk have stepped in to finally do what Congress is unwilling to do, and many members of Congress are upset, but their anger is misdirected. They should be angry and upset with themselves for not living unto their oversight responsibilities for the last twenty-five years. Meanwhile, polls show the majority of Americans are in favor of reducing the size of government and getting our financial house in order, but some members of Congress are defending the status quo while offering up no plan of their own to reduce the debt.

The GAO just informed Congress, again, that we have an estimated $233 billion to $521 billion annually in fraudulent spending. It makes sense to me that it’s a great place to start. It’s sad that many members of Congress can’t even agree on that, and it is sadder yet that it is not surprising.

The time has come for Congress to work together to pass a long-term plan to balance our budget and begin to pay down the national debt which is the single largest threat to America. It will be painful, but not nearly as painful as it will be if they again choose to do nothing.

Do you agree or disagree? I would like to know, at gregawtry@awtry.com.

Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at gregawtry@awtry.com.