Congress Should Not Add $1.5 Trillion to Debt in CR

Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 will end at midnight on September 30, and unless policymakers agree on passing all 12 appropriations bills or passing a continuing resolution (CR) before then, the federal government will shut down.

The House is set to vote on a short-term CR funding the government through November 21 at largely the same levels as FY 2025 along with extensions of expiring health programs through that date. Congressional Democrats released a counterproposal yesterday that would keep the government funded through October 31. Notably, the measure includes repeal of all of the health savings in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act along with a permanent extension of enhanced ACA subsidies, which are scheduled to expire at the end of this calendar year. We estimate this proposal would add roughly $1.5 trillion to the debt over the next decade.

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

Borrowing another $1.5 trillion should be a complete non-starter. Lawmakers should be focused on keeping the government open, not driving it deeper into debt.

It’s bad enough we are failing yet again to meet the most basic deadline in budgeting by not appropriating on time. We don’t need to add insult to injury by imposing massive new costs on our kids and grandkids.

The national debt is already approaching record levels as a share of the economy, and we’re on course to spend $1 trillion this year just on interest. We need to be focused on reducing deficits, not exploding them.

If lawmakers want to extend any of the ACA subsidies, they should do so responsibly by targeting the extension and at least offsetting the costs. Ideally we should be offsetting new borrowing twice over. Plenty of options are available, from adopting site-neutral payments to reducing Medicare Advantage upcoding to funding Cost Sharing Reduction payments.

Meanwhile, if lawmakers want to pare back parts of the reconciliation law, they should focus on the $6 trillion in tax cuts and spending increases, not the payfors.

The reconciliation law already put us $4 trillion deeper into the debt. We should not make it worse by continuing to allow providers and state governments to exploit the federal Medicaid match to pad their own bottom lines. It would be one thing to make some targeted changes to the law and offset the costs – but this bill would repeal all the law’s health care savings, throwing out the baby with the bath water.  

It’s time to stop the excessive borrowing. Instead of fighting debt with more debt, lawmakers should be using the budget process to reduce deficits. That starts with extending discretionary spending caps and lowering appropriations. But it will also require additional revenue, more health care savings, and spending reductions government-wide.

Meanwhile, we should be able to keep the government’s lights on without making our devastating fiscal situation even worse. 

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