Marc Goldwein: Here are realistic goals for Congress to get a grip on national debt

Marc Goldwein is senior vice president and senior policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. He recently wrote an opinion piece for Detroit News, an excerpt of which is below. 

The United States government is not realistically going to balance its budget within the next decade. Yet with high inflation, rising interest rates and debt approaching record levels, lawmakers should act soon to begin improving the nation’s fiscal trajectory. The first step is to stop making things worse. Beyond that, policymakers should select an achievable fiscal target and then put all parts of the budget and tax code on the table to achieve it.

It is refreshing that many in Congress are now focused on addressing the nation’s unsustainable fiscal situation. For most of the past eight years, lawmakers of both parties have voted to make the situation worse. Over four years, President Donald Trump signed into law or put in place through executive action nearly $8 trillion of debt increases over the subsequent decade; in his first two years, President Joe Biden approved another $5 trillion of new borrowing.

Read the entire piece here.

Published works by members or staff of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget do not necessarily reflect the views of all members or staff of the Committee.