John Kasich and Leon Panetta: The Fiscal Responsibility Act is Only a First Step Toward Truly Responsible Spending and Debt Reduction

John Kasich and Leon Panetta are former Members of Congress and a Director and Co-Chair, respectively, of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. They recently wrote an opinion piece for The Hill, an excerpt of which is below:

Passage of the Fiscal Responsibility Act, although it falls far short of its promising name, is welcome news. The product of a narrowly divided Congress, this legislation is not nearly as transformational as some declare, but it did push the urgency of deficit reduction on to center stage and take the prospect of a default off the table by extending the debt limit. But to achieve true transformation and make the Fiscal Responsibility Act’s legacy live up to its name, much more needs to be done.

But first, credit is due to President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), and the bipartisan group of policymakers who voted for this bill, in doing the hard work of achieving a compromise that will help the Federal Reserve fight inflation and begin making progress toward addressing our budget challenges.

As former members of Congress with deep roots in the budget setting process, both of us were involved in the 1990s in bipartisan efforts to successfully balance the federal budget and achieve a surplus. We understand the political challenges involved but we also believe that if the bipartisan leadership of the nation was willing to work together to avoid a default, that same leadership should be willing to take on a record $31 trillion national debt.

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.