By Myra Adams – The Hill contributor

MYRA’S COMPLETE ARCHIVE IS HERE

Reposted from The Hill – June 12, 2026

Wave both hands if you are celebrating America’s 250th anniversary. I am, but with one hand behind my back.

I am a patriot. As a Baby Boomer, I appreciated growing up in the world’s greatest country that positively impacted the planet. However, because of two megatrends — namely national debt and unprecedented population shifts since 1976 — I fear for our nation’s future and what lies ahead in the next 50 years.

National pessimism is also shared by 59 percent of adults — the share telling the Pew Research Center in December that “America’s best years have passed.” Furthermore, when asked to think about “what things will be like in the U.S. 50 years from now,” 44 percent of adults are pessimistic, 28 percent optimistic, and 27 percent neutral.

What follows is comparative data from 1976 to 2026, both eye-popping and worrisome.

First, how will our nation manage its impending, unstoppable financial death spiral? Uncontrolled national debt is straining the U.S. government’s budget, with an increasing share of your tax dollars going toward interest payments.

In 1976, the national debt was $629 billion, and annual interest payments totaled $61 billion.   Today, the national debt is $39.2 trillion, with debt service at $1.1 trillion and rising by $3 billion per day. Last June, when I wrote about this crisis, the debt stood at $36.9 trillion, an increase of $2.3 trillion in one year! Therefore, the fireworks at our 250th anniversary celebrations should symbolize the financial explosions our leaders are reluctant to address.

Most Americans are unaware that interest on the debt is the government’s third-largest budget item, exceeding the current $940 billion Department of Defense budget. Note that for 2027, President Trump has requested a $1.5 trillion defense budget, which would exceed the $1.1 trillion in debt service, but not for long.

The largest federal budget expense is $1.9 trillion for Medicare and Medicaid, with Social Security at $1.6 trillion in second place. This week, a critical “wake-up call” report warned that monthly Social Security payments will need to be reduced starting in late 2032.

As America celebrates July 4, citizens must recognize that the rapidly expanding national debt and its corresponding interest payments leave less money to “make America great.” Thus, your hard-earned tax dollars are not being used for a wide array of essential government services. Moreover, there is less money to build new 21st-century infrastructure and to pursue futuristic endeavors in which the U.S. must keep pace with our global competitors, both friends and enemies, on Earth and in space.

Another revealing comparative data point from 1976 was the U.S. gross domestic product, at $1.87 trillion. Today, it is $32.3 trillion. That is an impressive 50-year economic growth streak, except when compared with the even larger and faster growth of our $39.2 trillion debt. When people or nations owe more than they earn, a crash often follows.

Population shift is the second megatrend shaping America’s future. In 1976, the U.S. population was 221 million. This year, it is 349 million. Racial composition is a sensitive issue because demographic transformation is underway: by 2045, the white population will no longer be the majority. How the public and our government respond to and manage that dramatic change will determine whether the U.S. thrives or fails.

Since our nation’s founding, the white population has dominated. According to 1976 census data, whites were approximately 85 percent, Blacks at 11 percent, Hispanics about 4 percent, while Asians and other races were less than 1 percent.

Today, the Pew Research Center estimates that non-Hispanic whites account for 56 percent. Hispanics are at 20 percent, Blacks at 12 percent, Asians at 6 percent, mixed races at 5 percent, and others at 1 percent or less. Interracial marriage is occurring at a fast clip, so mixed races are a growing segment.

America’s accelerating racial diversity raises many questions. For example, are segments of the white population unwilling to accept a fully mixed-race America? Could large-scale racial strife erupt? How will the Black population respond to a Hispanic population twice as large by 2045? Will the gap between the rich and poor continue to widen? Most importantly, what happens if a white minority still controls 84.5 percent of total family wealth? How will all this play out amid inevitable cuts to government payments and services?

Between now and 2045, the majority-white population will age rapidly. This year, the first baby boomers born in 1946 turn 80; among them are President Trump and former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton. As a result, a large swath of the population will require more health and social services, largely provided by non-whites. Visit any nursing home or senior care facility to see this firsthand.

America’s 250th anniversary is marked by mounting government debt and rapid demographic change. Over the next 50 years, we must unite to address the current financial crisis and embrace our racial diversity, which 75 percent of adults support; otherwise, the consequences will be untenable.

Myra Adams served on the creative team of two Republican presidential campaigns in 2004 and 2008.