Americans Have Their Say on Budget Choices

As Washington struggles with confronting the mounting federal debt, the public has been given the opportunity to register their thoughts through CRFB’s online budget simulator. The early results indicate that Americans are willing to make some of the difficult fiscal choices that the politicians are avoiding.

Since CRFB unveiled its “Stabilize the Debt” budget simulator in May, thousands of people have taken up the challenge to stabilize U.S. debt at 60 percent of GDP by 2018. The site has had over 60,000 visits.

The simulator was designed to help educate Americans about the fiscal outlook and what can be done to place the country on a sustainable fiscal course. The results can help educate policymakers regarding what budget choices Americans are willing to support. And given the encouraging responses, it appears voters are well ahead of politicians on this one.

Highlights of the results so far are available here. Try the simulator yourself at https://crfb.org/stabilizethedebt/.