Tuesday marked the 73rd anniversary of the Allied victory at Stalingrad.
After six months of horror and destruction, the Battle of Stalingrad screeched to an abrupt end in 1943.
The snowdrifts couldn’t freeze the hearts of freedom lovers around the world as the Soviet Union dealt a decisive defeat to the then-unstoppable Nazi military.
In the decades since, American national security has only become more convoluted.
But if we look closer to home, we will spot a different kind of national security threat — a silent killer that has crept up on us for years.
This threat isn’t another war. It’s what we owe.
The U.S. national debt eclipsed $19 trillion in the final days of January.
Just how much money is $19 trillion?
Imagine strolling onto a football field and setting a $100 bill on the turf.
Then, blanket the rest of that entire football field, including both end zones, in $100 bills. You would need more than 500,000 bills to finish the job.
To represent the entire $19 trillion national debt, you would need more than 367,000 football fields covered in a carpet of currency.
You don’t need to be a business student to know that too much debt is considered bad.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, a swelling national debt can lead to issues ranging from reduced economic output to a greater risk of another financial crisis.
At its worst, an unsustainable national debt becomes a serious national security threat with the potential to torpedo a whole nation.
Unless both political parties in Congress are willing to slash some of their cherished government programs, you can bet we will only plunge farther down this waterslide until eventually the United States starts drowning in economic paralysis.
Can the raging growth of our national debt be stopped?
Three years into World War II, no one knew if the Nazi advance could be stopped. Then came the Battle of Stalingrad, and the rest was history.
mitcchri@indiana.edu
@AtlasMitchell
