Ray Dalio warns America faces ‘economic heart attack’ from debt and spending

Billionaire Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater Associates, is sounding the alarm on America’s chronic spending, national debt nearing $37 trillion, combined with a $2 trillion deficit that may balloon with President Trump’s ‘One Big Beautiful Bill.’ 

“We’re spending 40% more than we’re taking in and this is a chronic problem. So what you’re seeing is the debt service payments beginning to squeeze away, not beginning, well into squeezing away. So it’s like plaque in the arteries squeezing away buying power. And as you can do the numbers you will see that you can have an economic heart attack as a result of that That we’re going to very soon get to the position that you need debt to pay the debt,” said Dalio on FOX Business Network’s ‘The Claman Countdown.’

NEARLY ONE-THIRD OF $36T NATIONAL DEBT NEEDS REFINANCING AS TRUMP DEMANDS RATE CUTS

Dalio also outlined a pathway to ease the economic credit crunch. 

“We are at a juncture right now that, if we can, soon, very soon, while the economy is still good, cut the deficit to 3% of GDP, which is possible. You only have to change a couple of things, change spending by four percent, change tax income by four percent, then you’ll have a lower interest rate as a result. This is possible. It was done between 1991 and 1998, that balance, if everybody gives a little bit, there’s a possibility of being able to get it down to 3%. If you don’t do that, and we probably won’t do that, It is like the plaque building in the heart. And so we are now then going to have not only more debt and more debt service encroaching on our spending, But it’s also going to mean that we’re going to have a supply-demand problem,” he said. 

DALIO ON THE U.S.: GOING BROKE?

CAN AND WOULD TRUMP FIRE FED CHAIR POWELL?

The Congressional Budget Office estimates Trump’s tax bill could lift the deficit to $2.77 billion. The White House has pushed back on the CBO’s scoring and estimates, saying it doesn’t factor in revenues, including what tariffs are bringing in. Former Trump economic Advisor Larry Kudlow, now host of FOX Business Network’s ‘Kudlow,’ has also pointed out the CBO has a history of missing the mark and “under-reported” the first go-round of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts by $2.3 trillion over the past seven years. 

The bill continues to make its way through Congress and is expected to be on the President’s desk by July 4.