The greatest threat to American power may not come from Beijing or Tehran, but from Treasury auctions.

Imagine your family spent more this year than you earned. Uncomfortable, but manageable. Now imagine your family had spent more than it earned every single year since 2001. By now, you would be destitute.

That is what the federal government has been doing.

For the past 25 years — ever since Bill Clinton left the White House — Washington has spent more than it has taken in. Every single year. The national debt now stands at $39 trillion. (RELATED: Why Does Congress Keep Kicking the Fiscal Can?)

In 2001, the United States owed less than $6 trillion. Today, we owe nearly $39 trillion. The federal debt has grown by $33 trillion in just 25 years. (RELATED: How Did We Reach a $38 Trillion Debt During a ‘Shutdown’?)

Here is the worrying part. In the entire 212 years from George Washington’s first inauguration through Bill Clinton’s last day in office — through the Civil War, the Great Depression, two World Wars, and the Cold War — the United States accumulated $5.8 trillion in debt. In the 25 years since, we have added $33 trillion more. More than four-fifths of the total debt the country carries today has been borrowed in the past quarter-century.

Our brains are not wired to grasp numbers this large. So consider it another way.

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