Introducing the 2024 Debt Thermometer
We are releasing the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget’s new 2024 Debt Thermometer, along with the Debt Thermometers from 2017 through 2022. Each year, the Debt Thermometer will track the ten-year costs or savings associated with new policies that lawmakers adopt.
Last year was a monumental year for fiscal policy. After years of enacting legislation and executive actions that added to the debt, 2023 saw the passage of the largest deficit reduction measure in over a decade. Given that the national debt is projected to exceed its record as a share of the economy in just a few years, this was an important step in the right direction.
Policymakers should build on the success of 2023’s fiscal policy by making this year another year of deficit reduction. With interest payments rising, federal trust funds for Social Security and Medicare projected to be exhausted within a decade, and unknown other events that we may need to respond to, policymakers can take advantage of this moment to stabilize the debt and put it on a downward sustainable trajectory.