How concerned are you about the growing US federal deficit?

Very concerned (68%) – "The bill will come due. Increasingly it seems that time will come sooner than later. Real fiscal discipline is needed and neither party seems willing to do that."

• "This has been a problem for a long time, ever since we went off of the gold standard. Trump said he was going to conserve fiscally, but he lied. Democrats don't even pretend to want to balance the budget. It's a mess. Imagine if we lived the way the government does?"

"I know there are ecomists who think that spending more than you take in is a viable economic principle, but I can't stop thinking that if I did that, I'd eventually be broke living beyond my means. I always thought that the government was supposed to run a deficit during bad economic times and a surplus during good economic times. We've become so used to spend, spend, spend as a relatively new country that we've forgotten that we can quickly devolve into an inflationary state which the Federal Reserve Board can't control with constant rate hikes. At some point this house of cards that we are building will come crashing down. And if you think the Great Depression was bad, this will make it look like a walk in the park by comparison."

• "I am extremely concerned about this. I remember the Tea Party drawing attention to this during Obama’s terms, but we don’t hear anything about this now by members of Congress. AI companies are talking about ways to distribute their wealth back to the people and I think that their wealth should first be used to pay down the debt. That would be something that benefits everyone."

"At some point, Congress may face increasing pressure not to raise the national debt ceiling if interest payments on the national debt exceed the additional borrowing generated by persistent deficits, that is, spending in excess of government revenues. A comparable situation occurred in Greece around 2009, after the 2008 global financial crisis, when the country was required to implement severe austerity measures. Severe domestic austerity refers to stringent economic policies designed to cut public spending and raise tax revenues. These measures are generally adopted during a financial crisis to address a substantial budget deficit or reduce the national debt. Although the United States currently holds an AA+ credit rating, it is below the highest possible AAA rating. A further decline in the nation’s credit rating could increase pressure on Congress to take action to restore confidence in the country’s creditworthiness."

• "When we were THE superpower, federal debt was less of a problem. Now, we're one of several world powers and we've proven pretty volatile; our list of friends grow thin! So we're becoming more financially beholden to countries that range from cautiously friendly to outright hostile, all while charging boldly toward a fiscal cliff. At this point I don't know what else there is to say: we will experience fiscal crisis in the next 20 years."

Somewhat concerned (21%) – "The federal government needs to get spending under control but we can only vote. That vote does not ensure that the federal government will suddenly become fiscally responsible. The national debt has been growing unabated since 1957 when it was reduced by 2 billion dollars. Time to stop the 70 year trend of deficit spending before we default."

• "im moderately concerned. the dc dumpster fire has bigger problems though."

Neutral (2%) – We didn't receive any long-form submissions for this answer.

Not very concerned (5%) – "I am 80 years old. Trump continues to F---- up the country. All i can do is try to vote the old ones out."

Not at all concerned (4%) – "If you look up what makes up our national deficit, there is a HUGE chunk where our govt agencies owe other govt agencies. We could just cancel that out and we would be in much better shape."