(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 is making headlines after a social media post from an NPR reporter revealed the department had added Venmo as a payment option through its “Gifts to Reduce the Public Debt” program.
The program has been around since 1961 and, according to Axios, roughly $67.3 million has been donated since 1996. The page caps donations at $999,999.99.
But given that country’s debt is nearly $37 trillion, economists say the page is more of a symbolic gesture than a solution. According to the U.S. Congress Joint Economic Committee, the total national debt has grown by nearly $55,000 per second for 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.
