Maya MacGuineas: Five ways national debt is canceling our future

Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and head of the Campaign to Fix the Debt. She recently wrote an opinion piece for The Dallas Morning News, an excerpt of which is below.

Unfortunately, some policymakers learned the wrong lesson from borrowing during COVID. They claimed that the large increase in borrowing proved that debt doesn’t matter and we can borrow without limit. We are seeing some of those consequences now, and, without further adjustments to our fiscal situation, we will see them into the future.

First, the economic consequences of debt are playing out today. Over the past year, inflation has run at 9.1%, in large part because of borrowing more than the economy could support. Apart from high inflation, growing debt will itself raise interest rates and reduce economic growth through government borrowing “crowding out” private investment. In a worst-case scenario, high and rising debt could even spur a fiscal crisis where the market loses confidence, quickly driving up interest rates or inflation. None of these consequences are desirable, let alone acceptable ways of governing.

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.