Senator Predicts U.S. Could Have Grecian Like Debt Crisis

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Sen. Gregg: U.S. May Follow Greece Into a Debt Crisis

By Frank McGuire

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., says the United States is in danger of being in the same dire situation as Greece in seven years if the nation doesn't slash its debt and control spending.

“We are on a path which will go to where Greece is, there's no question about that, if we don't adjust our present financial house,” Gregg says.

“If we continue to spend much more than we take in," he says. "We'll double our debt in five years and triple it in 10 years and essentially be where Greece is in about seven years,” he said Monday night on the Fox Business Network.

"So we know we are headed in that direction unless we do something about reducing the level of debt and reducing the level of our spending.”

The national debt of Greece is 113 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The current U.S. debt amounts to roughly 50 percent of the gross domestic product.

Asked when he expects that the U.S. debt situation will reach the crisis level that Greece is currently facing, Gregg said, “we're looking at maybe the outside 10 years, probably closer to seven years before we hit the wall, so to say.”

The Republican senator said that the signs of a crisis are already here – pointing to recent downgraded ratings of U.S. debt.

Asked how Americans will know that the crisis has hit, Gregg responded: “Well, when people stop buying our bonds.”

“Basically, when they tell us that they don't have any confidence in our debt being repaid and they force us to pay a much higher interest rate, something that is unsustainable,” he said.

“They essentially say to those of us in the United States, just trying to sell debt to finance our daily operations of government, we do not believe you can repay the debt or can repay it in a way to make us buy your debt at a reasonable price.”