The day the debt stood still

January 9, 1835, was the day after US President Andrew Jackson fulfilled his goal to pay all the country’s debt. 1835 counts as the only year in American history without federal borrowings. As soon as in 1837, after the infamous bank panic, the debt respawned to rise more or less steadily ever since, save for but two long spans of debt reduction after the Civil War and WWII.

Exactly one hundred, four score and nine years later, on January 9, 2024, US House of Representatives will host a briefing with members of the intelligence community concerning the UFO enigma, based on earlier David Grusch’s testimonials and similar debates in Mexican Congress. American national debt shall have surpassed $34,035,000,000,000 by then, much higher bar than the late great Mike Resnick had ever been able to imagine. The debt added ca. $4 trillion since February 2022, when it had first spilled over $30 trillion mark.

Highly likely those lump sums could be better spent by financing some interstellar colonization program as long as it takes.

Inasmuch as, for all debt increasing speed, it still can’t stand to ‘Oumuamua’s cruise velocity.

It might be juicy to note that current harsh clashes in the Congress about yet another debt ceiling crisis coincide with the final phase of rat race toward primaries, after which Donald Trump is expected to seize the Republican nomination; and of all American politicians, thieves, fireclowns, or war criminals it is Trump who deserves comparison with Andrew Jackson from 1835 the most.