Maya MacGuineas: The Drivers of our Debt and the Empty Rhetoric of Politics Today

Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She recently wrote an opinion piece for the Ripon Forum, an excerpt of which is below.

The nation’s fiscal situation is deteriorating quite rapidly, and instead of fixing it, our nation’s leaders engage in fake justifications and ongoing finger-pointing. 

There is a huge risk that we will soon see large tax cuts that add hundreds of billions, if not trillions, to the debt. We should fully offset these tax cuts by broadening the tax base and cutting spending. 

But instead, in addition to making exaggerated growth claims, those who defend tax cuts will no doubt point to the bloated Democratic American Rescue Plan that also borrowed too much and kicked off inflation. 

And Democrats will in turn point to the first Trump Administration, where tax cuts not only added trillions to the debt, but spending increases added trillions more.

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.