CRFB Reaction to Budget Resolution Adoption

The House of Representatives just voted to adopt the Senate-amended Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 concurrent budget resolution, making it a concurrent resolution that unlocks fast-track reconciliation instructions. The budget’s reconciliation instructions would allow for legislation to add $5.8 trillion to deficits through FY 2034 – including a permanent extension of the expiring 2017 tax cuts using the “current policy” gimmick – while requiring only $4 billion in gross deficit reduction. A package this size would double the growth in debt-to-GDP, and push annual deficits to $3.4 trillion by 2034.

The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

This budget sets the stage for the largest deficit increase in history – an unprecedented bill that requires just $4 billion in savings to offset up to $5.8 trillion in deficits. What an absolute disgrace.

The House instructions to allow $2.8 trillion of net borrowing after incorporating $2 trillion of gross spending cuts are bad enough. But it’s the Senate instructions that are binding – not the House instructions, and certainly not some backroom commitment. 

The Senate took the House’s borrowing allowance and more than doubled it, clearing the way for a bill that could borrow more than the American Rescue Plan, TCJA, CARES Act, and bipartisan infrastructure law combined.

Meanwhile, the Senate shrunk the House’s required spending cuts by 99.8 percent. The Senate’s required cuts equate to only $3 per household per year – enough to buy every American family a single cup of coffee.

Attaching such a debt blowout to the largest specified debt ceiling increase in history – $5 trillion – just adds insult to injury.

The House erred in deferring to the Senate this time, and they must not continue to capitulate to them going forward. Fiscally responsible members of Congress should insist that the final legislation is fully paid for with substantial spending cuts and thoughtful tax reforms. They certainly shouldn’t allow any more borrowing than the House’s already expensive reconciliation instructions.

The recent turmoil in the markets only serves as a reminder that the world – including our adversaries, who we borrow from – is paying attention to U.S. fiscal policy. There are real dangers that passing a debt increase this large could trigger a debt spiral and fiscal crisis. Lawmakers should alleviate those fears by pivoting toward real, sustainable efforts to bring our long-term fiscal trajectory under control.

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For more information, please contact Matt Klucher, Assistant Director of Media Relations, at klucher@crfb.org.