While looking through back issues of NR for something else, I found this paragraph in “The Week” from the July 20, 1979 issue:

Another milestone. Public debt—federal, state and local—has passed the $1 trillion mark. $1012. One million millions of dollars. That’s how much our so-called public so-called servants have spent—above and beyond what they have taxed and inflated away from you. Guess who’s liable for the trillion dollar debt? Not public servants. Public debt figures do not include further liabilities mandated by law but not yet spent—at least $5trillion, much higher by some estimates, which exceeds all the wealth in the world. Nothing daunted, your so-called elected so-called representatives are busily spending the rest of the solar system.