John Mauldin says the National Debt will be $50 trillion by 2030

 Here is his forecast:

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2020/09/30/to-50-trillion-debt-and-beyond/

My last forecast, following the CBO numbers, was for $33 trillion in debt held by the public by 2030.  If you add $6 trillion in intragovernmental debt you get $39 trillion.  John Mauldin thinks it will be much worse than that.  The main difference is that he thinks revenue (that is, taxes collected) will be much lower than the CBO projects.  (He also thinks spending will be slightly higher). Why would revenue be lower?

We reset revenue to change by the same annual percentages it did in 2008 and the following recession and post-recession years. 

Ok, makes sense.  So we will never see spending less than $5 trillion per year or a deficit below $2 trillion per year again.

But why does it matter if it hits $50 trillion? (There is no limit to the Magical Money Tree).  Mauldin himself isn't worried about it.  He thinks that somehow we will survive as a nation and species.

We have no good choices left. It is as if we are on a trip through a desert and know for certain we don’t have enough water to go back. We have to go forward, not knowing where the desert ends. We are going to learn how much the US can borrow before it all collapses around our ears. I have no idea where that point is. It’s probably a lot more than any of us currently believe. While all of this is happening, we will continue to see accelerating technological transformation.  So yes, I fully understand that $50 trillion or even $60 trillion of US debt is a problem, but I’m not going to ignore the opportunities in front of me. I fully believe that the 100,000+ entrepreneurs who have lost their businesses are not simply going to sit on their derrieres and do nothing. It is in their DNA to launch new ideas. They will keep creating opportunities and jobs. I think of myself as a realistic, rational optimist. I can admit the problems that we have with our government, debt, and political partisanship and still want to be long humanity and believe in a powerful future. You should, too.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnmauldin/2020/10/01/5-consequences-of-us-debt-at-50-trillion/

So focus on what happens after the dollar collapses and think about transformation.