The $21.2 trillion national debt today is worrisome enough. But it is going to get worse, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

You may want to sit down for this: Within 30 years, the national debt will top $100 trillion, if nothing changes, the CBO is predicting.

That would amount to more than $300,000 each for every man, woman and child in our country now.

How would this disaster occur? CBO analysts made it plain: Tax revenue will increase only slightly during the next third of a century. Meanwhile, government spending will continue to grow.

Thoughtful Americans have worried about deficit spending for many years. Few politicians skip opportunities to proclaim it is a major concern.

Then, Congress and presidents of both major political parties do nothing. Some liberals decry tax cuts for their effect on the debt — but when it comes to cuts in federal spending, they adopt an over-my-dead-body position.

Unless something is done quickly to reduce the imbalance between spending and revenue, the situation 30 years from now will be a tragedy for our children and grandchildren.