Commentary: Big Tent Ideas

Can America Protect Itself While Drowning In Debt?

Unsplash/JP Valery

For decades, America’s national debt has been treated largely as an economic problem.

Economists debate deficits, interest rates, inflation and tax policy while the problem continues to grow. Politicians argue over spending priorities while searching for additional revenue.

Yet an important question is often overlooked: What happens when the nation’s debt begins to influence its ability to protect itself? At what point does debt cease to be merely a fiscal concern and become a national security concern?

History teaches us that great powers seldom decline overnight. More often, they gradually lose the financial flexibility needed to respond to crises. Military superiority depends on advanced technology and the economic strength to sustain it.

A nation burdened by excessive debt eventually faces difficult choices between defending its interests abroad and meeting obligations at home.

America has long enjoyed advantages few nations possess. The U.S. dollar remains the world’s reserve currency and Treasury securities continue to attract investors seeking stability. Those advantages have allowed the United States to finance deficits at favorable rates. However, we should not mistake those advantages for immunity.

Every dollar spent servicing debt is unavailable for defense modernization, cybersecurity, infrastructure, scientific research and long-term competitiveness. As interest costs consume a growing share of the federal budget, policymakers face increasingly difficult tradeoffs.

The question is no longer whether America can borrow, but whether growing debt limits America’s strategic options.

National security today extends far beyond military hardware. It includes supply chain resilience, semiconductor manufacturing, energy independence, artificial intelligence, rare earth minerals, cyber defense and technological innovation. Maintaining leadership in each requires sustained investment. Fiscal constraints can quietly erode those investments long before the consequences become visible.

America’s competitors understand that economic strength and national power are inseparable. Today, nations compete through technology, industrial capacity, financial influence and strategic investment. Military force remains essential, but economic endurance often determines who prevails.

America’s founders recognized borrowing could be necessary during war or national emergency but understood that perpetual indebtedness threatened prosperity and independence. A government burdened by overwhelming obligations inevitably has fewer choices and becomes increasingly vulnerable.

Borrowing is sometimes necessary during wars, pandemics and economic crises. It should remain the exception—not the operating model of government.

As entitlement obligations grow and interest payments rise, an ever-larger share of federal spending becomes locked in, reducing flexibility to respond to geopolitical conflict, cyberattacks, natural disasters, or technological competition. Fiscal rigidity weakens national resilience.

Neither political party can claim innocence. Both have contributed to the nation’s fiscal trajectory through spending increases, tax reductions, emergency appropriations and expanding commitments. Responsibility belongs to both parties and so must the solution.

America’s strength has always rested on more than military power. It rests on economic vitality, innovation, productive workers, sound institutions and public confidence. Fiscal responsibility is part of that foundation.

The debate over the national debt should extend beyond budget negotiations. It should include America’s ability to lead, deter conflict, invest in future generations and respond to unexpected challenges. The real question is not how much debt America can sustain today, but how much strategic freedom future generations may lose if today’s debt continues to grow unchecked.

A nation’s strength is measured not only by its military or economy, but by its ability to preserve both. If mounting debt gradually limits America’s ability to defend its interests, invest in its future and respond to global threats, then the national debt is no longer merely an economic issue. It has become a national security issue.

Deborah A. Wilson is a Georgetown University Law graduate and practicing lawyer in Northern Virginia. She is the author of The Seam: Secrets Beneath the North Pole and a freelance writer.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.