At the end of July, our national debt officially topped $35 trillion. This development comes just seven months after our country surpassed $34 trillion in debt and less than a year since our national debt eclipsed $33 trillion last September.

As a father of four, I firmly believe that we have both a moral and financial obligation to our children and grandchildren to enact real reforms that begin to reduce our exploding national debt and restore fiscal sanity to Congress. In fact, for the sake of our economic and national security, we have no other choice but to get our fiscal house in order as quickly as possible.

Our accumulation of debt is a rapidly accelerating trend that is unsustainable, unacceptable, and dangerous — and the warning signs are flashing bright red. $35 trillion equates to nearly $105,000 per person, over $266,000 per household, and more than 483,000 per child in the United States.

Additionally, in just a year’s time, the national debt has grown by $2.35 trillion, which breaks down to $196 billion in new debt every month, $6.4 billion every day, $268 million every hour, $4.5 million every minute, and $74,400 every second.

Regrettably, the longer that we wait to truly address the underlying causes of our debt crisis — like reckless government spending and unnecessary expansions of bureaucracy — these figures will only continue to grow to unfathomable levels.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office also projects that our national debt will top $50 trillion in a decade, the debt will equal about 122 percent of our annual economic output, and federal deficits will eclipse $24 trillion over the next decade. Moreover, this year alone, our federal budget deficit will reach nearly $2 trillion, and our interest payments will surpass almost $900 billion just to finance the interest obligations on our national debt. That’s $900 billion that we cannot use to fund our military, provide quality healthcare to our veterans, repair our roads and bridges, or invest in education.

In addition to cutting wasteful spending that only fuels inflation and weakens our economic security, we must balance our federal budget every single year just like any American family or business must do. We cannot continue with business as usual and spend taxpayer dollars frivolously when one of the largest expenses for the federal government is now interest payments on our debt. That’s why I introduced the Balanced Budget and Accounting Act to require the President of the United States to submit a balanced budget to Congress each year — not a wish list of tax hikes and reckless spending proposals. It’s also incumbent upon Congress to pass fiscally responsible and balanced budgets that actually fund our most important needs while simultaneously prioritizing deficit and debt reduction. Unfortunately, President Biden’s most recent budget proposal to Congress comes out to $7.3 trillion, which further underscores the need for this legislation.

Like I’ve repeatedly said before, we must end reckless government spending, balance our federal budget, and restore fiscal responsibility to the core function of government before our debt crisis reaches an irreversible breaking point. As a strong, fiscal conservative, I will continue to oppose wasteful spending and unchecked expansions of bureaucracy that will only accelerate our arrival to $36 trillion in debt.

U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, a Republican from Hull, represents Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District.