Commentary The national debt has passed $30 trillion. It is clearly time to start talking about balancing the federal budget. The explosion of federal debt has been astonishing. In 1980, the national debt was $908 billion. Today, it is more than $30 trillion and growing. That is a more than 3,204 percent increase in 42 years. Federal debt has grown much faster than the economy. While the debt has risen more than 3,204 percent, the gross domestic product (GDP) has only risen from $2.86 trillion to $20.94 trillion—a 633 percent increase. In 1980, the economy was three times bigger than the national debt. Today, the debt is 50 percent bigger than the entire economy. This gap is growing each year as government borrows more than the economy grows. A serious recession would rapidly make the debt-to-economy ratio even worse. The debt has seemed relatively benign because interest rates have been …