Maya MacGuineas: National debt is a crisis. Congress must take it seriously

Maya MacGuineas is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. She recently wrote an opinion piece for the Dallas Morning News, an excerpt of which is below.

No matter how you look at it — as a fiscal hawk, a market watcher, or as someone simply concerned about the future we’re leaving for our children — our ever-growing national debt has become a tremendous threat. 

We’re currently borrowing nearly $2 trillion annually and our national debt is about the size of our entire economy. We spend almost $1 trillion annually just on interest on the national debt, more than we spend on national defense or children. And all of this is only projected to get worse over the coming years.

We are at the point where Congress should reject any legislation that would increase our borrowing. In fact, if there were one fiscal pledge to ask of lawmakers, it would be No New Borrowing.

And yet the reconciliation budget bill making its way through Congress now would add not just millions or billions to the national debt, it would add trillions.

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.