Former Vice President Mike Pence is leading a new effort to convince federal lawmakers to address the spiraling national debt. The debt surpassed the $35 trillion threshold in late July, less than eight months after hitting the $34 trillion mark. The upward trend won’t stop anytime soon: the Congressional Budget Office expects the debt to hit $56 trillion by 2034, at which point the debt will be 122 percent the size of the U.S. economy. With the country veering into uncharted and dangerous territory, Pence’s newly launched nonprofit, Advancing American Freedom (AAF), is asking lawmakers to ste…