Roughly three months after our country exceeded $32 trillion in debt, we have surpassed another grim milestone and broken another unfortunate record. Our national debt has officially eclipsed $33 trillion, which is now the highest debt burden in American history. To put this figure into perspective, every single American – all 340 million of us – shoulders nearly $100,000 of this debt. Even worse, at a time when our federal budget deficit is projected to double to $2 trillion this fiscal year, there is no indication that this amount of debt is the ceiling.

The Congressional Budget Office – a nonpartisan federal entity – recently confirmed my worst fears about our ballooning national debt and worsening fiscal health. According to its projections, our national debt is estimated to reach $144 trillion by 2053, which would amount to $1 million per American household. This is a sobering preview of Bidenomics and its dangerous ramifications.

Serving on the House Ways and Means Committee, I’ve repeatedly warned that injecting trillions of dollars into our economy would fuel inflation, supercharge deficits, send interest rates soaring, and make life unaffordable for our families. Regrettably, my calls for fiscal responsibility have fallen on deaf ears.

Instead, President Biden and Democrats in Congress approved over $6 trillion in unnecessary spending that created the worst inflation crisis in more than 40 years, made routine trips to the grocery store increasingly expensive, caused American credit-card debt to exceed $1 trillion for the first time ever, and eroded – on average – $33,000 in real wealth for American households. Not to mention that the Biden administration’s executive orders have cost Americans roughly $10,000 in additional expenses and mortgage rates are approaching 8 percent – effectively shutting folks out of the housing market and decimating the dream of homeownership altogether.

It’s clear that the status quo is no longer acceptable.

If we want to protect our children and grandchildren from economic catastrophe, we must end reckless spending, enact a balanced budget amendment to our Constitution, and eliminate government waste. Failure to act will indebt our nation to China, embolden our enemies, and destroy the American economy beyond comprehension. As a strong, fiscal conservative, I will continue my work to restore fiscal sanity and defend hardworking taxpayers from the Biden administration’s destructive economic policies.

We are government together, and your thoughts and opinions matter to me. Please contact my office at Feenstra.House.Gov or by phone at 202-225-4426 if I can ever be of assistance. I am proud to represent our families, farmers, Main Street businesses, and rural communities in Congress.

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, represents Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District.