Bloomberg Surveillance · Saturday, September 12, 2026
Richard Haass emphasized that the U.S. national debt, exceeding $40 trillion, is a significant national security issue. He warned that a ballooning debt could lead to a loss of global confidence in the U.S. economy, potentially causing capital to move away from the dollar and making it harder to finance the debt. Haass noted that the interest payments on the debt are now greater than the defense budget, diverting funds from productive investments.
“Let's talk about fiscal policy because today, collectively, we're seeing the bond market and economists sending warning signals about the national debt, more than $ 40 trillion. How high does that $ 40 trillion of national public debt rank as a national security issue?”
“It is a national security issue because the rest of the world loses confidence in our ability to manage our economy. They'll move away from the dollar. They'll stop financing the debt. We will then have to take all sorts of economic measures, for example, raising rates, not to cool an overheated economy, but simply to attract the financing that we want and need.”
“The service on the debt, essentially paying the interest on our debt, is now greater than what we spend on defense. That is crazy. This is money going down the drain. We want to spend money, the budget, on productive things. We want to invest in ourselves and our own future. We don't want to simply pay off our past profligacy, and that is what we're doing.”