This article was originally published by Michael Snyder at The Economic Collapse Blog. 

When you spend 30 trillion dollars that you do not have, it is easy to create an illusion of prosperity. In 1995, the nation was obsessed with the O.J. Simpson trial, “Toy Story” was the biggest movie of the year, the Sony PlayStation made its debut in the United States, and Bill Clinton was in the White House. At that time, the U.S. national debt was right on the verge of crossing the 5 trillion dollar mark.

Today, the U.S. national debt is sitting at 36.2 trillion dollars. That means that we have added more than 30 trillion dollars to the national debt in just 30 years.

So what did we get for 30 trillion dollars?

We got the greatest party in the history of the world.

Over the past three decades, we have been enjoying an obscenely inflated standard of living that we did not deserve.

When the government spends money, it provides a short-term boost to the economy.  Those who get their hands on the money that the government spends end up using it to go shopping, repair their vehicles, eat at restaurants, etc.

If we could go back and pull 30 trillion dollars of extra government spending over the last 30 years out of the economy, we would be in a rip-roaring depression right now.

So, for those of you who wish to avoid economic pain at all costs, you should thank our Congress critters for spending money like drunken sailors all these years.

But in the process, our leaders have destroyed America’s future.

We are broke, and we are absolutely drowning in debt.

The only way that we can meet our obligations is to go into ever larger amounts of debt.

Unfortunately, that cycle can only go on for so long before we reach a point where nobody wants to lend us money anymore.

If you have been paying attention to the bond market, you already know that there have been all sorts of red flags in 2025.

The clock is ticking.  But instead of getting our spending under control, Congress seems determined to ramp our spending up to a much higher level…

The package of tax-and-spending measures sent to the Senate, now officially called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, could act like budgetary wolf bait. It would add around $3 trillion to debt levels over the next decade compared with existing estimates and $5 trillion if certain temporary features were made permanent, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

For perspective, federal interest this fiscal year already will be more than the defense budget and more than Medicaid, disability insurance and food stamps combined.

If you are one of those who want to keep the party going for as long as possible, you probably support this bill.

But for those of us who want our children and grandchildren to actually have a future, we are absolutely horrified by what we are witnessing.

In fact, Elon Musk just called this bill a “disgusting abomination”…

Elon Musk is right.

Rand Paul has also spoken out against this bill, and he is right, too.

What we have been doing to future generations of Americans over the past 30 years is beyond criminal.

It must stop.

If it doesn’t stop, it is just a matter of time before the entire system collapses.

We have been able to defy the laws of economics for many years, but now economic reality is catching up with us in a major way.

And even though we continue to spend giant mountains of money that we do not have, the illusion of prosperity that we have created is rapidly starting to crumble anyway.

This week, we learned that Disney is conducting “major layoffs”…

Major layoffs are underway Monday the Walt Disney Company, with several hundred employees impacted globally, Deadline has learned. The bulk of them are across divisions of Disney Entertainment, including marketing for both film and television as well as television publicity, casting and development. Also affected are Disney’s corporate financial operations.

Microsoft is even bigger than Disney, and they are conducting mass layoffs as well…

Microsoft Corp. cut hundreds more jobs just weeks after its largest layoff in years, underscoring the tech industry’s efforts to trim costs even as it plows billions of dollars into artificial intelligence.

More than 300 employees were told their positions had been eliminated on Monday, according to a Washington state notice reviewed by Bloomberg.

These latest layoffs by Microsoft are on top of the 6,000 job cuts that were revealed last month…

A Microsoft spokesperson said the latest headcount reduction is in addition to the 6,000 job cuts announced last month. “We continue to implement organizational changes necessary to best position the company for success in a dynamic marketplace,” the spokesperson said.

If you have a job that you value, hold on to it as tightly as you can, because a lot more people are going to be losing their jobs in the months ahead.

And that is really bad news, because we already have a major employment crisis in this country.

As I discussed the other day, nearly 1 out of every 4 Americans is “functionally unemployed” at this point.

Things are really tough out there right now.

In fact, things are so tough that Americans are eating meals at home at the highest level we have seen since the early days of the pandemic…

More Americans are cooking at home as growing economic concerns are forcing households to cut back, according to Campbell’s CEO Mick Beekhuizen.

Beekhuizen told analysts during the company’s third-quarter earnings call on Monday that consumer sentiment continued to soften throughout the quarter, with shoppers becoming even more deliberate about how they were spending money on food.

“A key outcome is a growing preference for home-cooked meals, leading to the highest levels of meals prepared at home since early 2020,” Beekhuizen said.

One way or another, we are going to have to take our medicine.

Either our leaders will have to get our financial house in order, or the bond market will force us to change.

But no matter how it plays out, nobody can deny that the party is ending.

It was fun while it lasted, but everybody knew that the wild spending would eventually have to come to an end.

Needless to say, the adjustment to our standard of living that we will soon experience will be exceedingly painful, and our society is not prepared for that at all.

Michael’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can subscribe to his Substack newsletter at michaeltsnyder.substack.com.

About the Author: Michael Snyder’s new book, entitled “10 Prophetic Events That Are Coming Next,” is available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com.  He has also written nine other books that are available on Amazon.com, including “Chaos”, “End Times”, “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”.  When you purchase any of Michael’s books, you help to support the work that he is doing.  You can also get his articles by email as soon as he publishes them by subscribing to his Substack newsletter.  Michael has published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream, and The Most Important News, and he always freely and happily allows others to republish those articles on their own websites.  These are such troubled times, and people need hope.  John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”  If you have not already done so, we strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.