Even a federal shutdown can’t keep the national debt from continuing to spiral out of control.

The nation’s debt now tops $38 trillion . It’s an unfathomable amount of money, so consider this: Every citizen’s share of that debt is more than $110,000. If you look only at taxpayers, the amount is more than $328,000.

Another way to view this is to compare the size of the deficit to the country’s gross domestic product. In 1980, the ratio was under 35 percent. In 2000, it was 55.5 percent. Today, it tops 120 percent. The United States now spends more on interest payments than on national defense. That’s not a good position in which to be.

Most of the public simply doesn’t care. If they did, our elected officials would take this crisis more seriously. The national debt feels like having a ho

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