(NewsNation) – Americans looking to chip in to pay off the country’s debt can now do so via Venmo.
The U.S. Department of the Treasury has sparked interest following a social media revelation by an NPR reporter that Venmo has been added as a payment option for its “Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt” program.
This initiative, in existence since 1961, has amassed around $67.3 million in donations since 1996, as reported by Axios. The donation page limits contributions to a maximum of $999,999.99.
However, with the national debt approaching $37 trillion, experts view this program more as a symbolic action rather than a genuine solution. According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the total national debt has increased by almost $55,000 every second over the past year.
“I don’t see it as clever, I see it as maybe desperate. But I just don’t see it as something that is going to be viable all around. I think it’s a massive distraction,” Shawn French, host and founder of “The Determined Society” podcast, said. “But I think it’s also a last-ditch effort for people to say, hey, well, we tried.”
Even if every American donated $1,000 today, those donations would barely make a dent in the country’s debt.
