Credit has become our friend. You know, like the friendly neighborhood drug dealer. Always there to seduce you with a nice, warm, addictive product. Swipe the card. Finance the car. Buy the house. Borrow for college. Put Christmas on plastic. Enjoy it now and don’t worry about the consequences… till later. Washington does the same thing, only with trillions of dollars from generations of Americans who have not even been born yet.
We sacrifice tomorrow to have what we want today. We borrow from our children, our grandchildren, people who will never have a voice in the decisions being made at their expense. Then we point to everything that borrowed money purchased and call it prosperity. It is not prosperity. It is consumption financed by somebody else’s future.
The United States now carries roughly $40 trillion in federal debt. That is more than $116,000 per man, woman, and child in the country if it were divided evenly. That is not literally a bill being mailed to every American, but it illustrates the staggering scale of what we have accumulated. And we are still borrowing.
From October 2025 through July 2026, the first 10 months of the federal fiscal year, Washington ran another $1.8 trillion deficit. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates that the full-year deficit could reach roughly $2.1 trillion. This is not an emergency war budget or a temporary response to another Great Depression. It has become the normal operation of our government.
Perhaps the most frightening number is $963 billion, what the federal government spent on net interest on the public debt during just the first 10 months of this fiscal year. Interest spending was already greater than the $763 billion spent on Defense Department military activities during the same period. We are approaching the point where yesterday’s spending decisions consume resources that could have been used to defend the nation, strengthen infrastructure, reduce taxes, help the vulnerable, or, here’s a novel idea, simply let it remain in the hands of the people who earned the money.
Debt eventually takes away choices. That is true for a family, a business, and a nation. Scripture understood this thousands of years before Washington discovered deficit financing. Proverbs 22:7 says, “The borrower is servant to the lender.” Deuteronomy repeatedly associates the ability to lend with strength and blessing, while describing dependence upon lenders as weakness.
I wrote years ago about the fundamentally different positions of the borrower and the lender. The lender possesses capital. The borrower has made a promise against future resources. Enough promises accumulate, and eventually the future no longer belongs entirely to you. This is why the national debt is more than an accounting problem. It is becoming a sovereignty problem.
CBO projects federal debt held by the public will rise from about 101 percent of GDP in 2026 to 120 percent by 2036, exceeding the record reached immediately after World War II. Continue along the current path and CBO projects that figure reaches 175 percent of GDP by 2056. CBO itself says the fiscal trajectory is not sustainable. Unsustainable is Washington language for this eventually breaks.
No one can tell us precisely when or how. A debt crisis does not have to arrive as a dramatic government default. It can appear through higher taxes, persistent inflation, weaker growth, diminished military options or painful political decisions. Debt can slowly consume national strength long before it produces a headline announcing a crisis.
Government is not alone. American households ended the second quarter carrying $18.77 trillion in debt, including $1.26 trillion in credit card balances, $1.71 trillion in auto debt and $1.65 trillion in student loans. Not all debt is irresponsible. A prudent mortgage or productive business loan can serve a legitimate purpose. But when borrowing replaces discipline, waiting, saving and sacrifice, something deeper has changed in our character.
That same attitude has infected Washington. We want benefits without taxes, programs without sacrifice, tax reductions without spending restraint and promises without consequences. Politicians learned a long time ago that borrowing lets government give voters something today while sending much of the bill to people tomorrow. That’s outright generational theft.
Biblical stewardship starts with a radically different premise. “The earth is the Lord’s, and all its fullness” (Psalm 24:1). We are not owners. We are stewards. Everything entrusted to us is to be managed faithfully, whether it is a household checkbook, an investment portfolio, or a nation's finances.
America does not need another commission to tell us we have a debt problem. We need the character to do something about it. Congress must begin treating a balanced budget as an obligation rather than an aspiration. Every major spending category must be open to examination. New programs and tax policies must face the same simple question families face: How are we going to pay for it? And we, the citizens, must stop rewarding politicians who promise us benefits while hiding the bill from us.
At home, we should do the same. Stop financing lifestyles we cannot afford. Attack destructive consumer debt. Save before consuming. Teach our children that delayed gratification is a virtue, not deprivation. Restore the idea that leaving the next generation stronger is more important than consuming everything available to us today… and tomorrow.
America is not predestined to collapse because of its debt, but neither is America exempt from the math. An altar is where something valuable is sacrificed to something considered more valuable. America is increasingly sacrificing its future, its independence, and the prosperity of generations who are yet unborn so that we do not have to say that one uncomfortable word today: No.
It is time to tear down the altar.
Financial Issues Stewardship Ministries (FISM) host Mark Minnella brings 35 years of experience helping individuals invest with biblical integrity. He was the founder and president of one of the first investment advisories dedicated to biblically responsible investing principles. A co-founder of the National Association of Christian Financial Consultants and creator of the CFCA designation, Mark has been a voice for biblical stewardship through radio, writing, and speaking for over 30 years. He hosted “More Than Money” on Bott Radio Network for 17 years and is the author of “The Wall Street Awakening.” Mark and his wife, Cindy, live in St. Louis, MO, and have three grown children.
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