America’s national debt passed a new milestone Tuesday, hitting $31 trillion — a figure one-quarter larger than America’s annual GDP of around $25 trillion. With deficit hawks an endangered species on Capitol Hill, who will protect our nest eggs from the reckoning that looms should we continue down our current path?

When the National Debt Clock first appeared in Times Square in 1989, it warned about less than $3 trillion of red ink. In the years since, even as the numbers rolled over at a faster and faster clip, the Debt Clock has been moved to one and then another less conspicuous location. Out of sight, out of mind.