CRFB Launches Ad Campaign Urging No New Borrowing for the Rest of 2022

As lawmakers contemplate a number of tax breaks and spending increases as part of a year-end legislative package, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget will be running ads urging lawmakers not to add more new debt in 2022. You can listen to the ad here.

Lawmakers could easily add tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars in new borrowing if they adopt even just some of the measures they are contemplating. Some of the specific policies under consideration include extending or avoiding provisions from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, suspension of the Medicare and/or PAYGO sequester, a number of health and retirement provisions, and expanding the Child Tax Credit. There is little to no serious discussion of offsetting the costs of most of these policies despite soaring inflation and near-record debt levels.

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

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget is urging lawmakers to reject all non-emergency new borrowing for the rest of the year given that there is no economic justification for new borrowing.

Many lawmakers are resistant to this idea because they want to enact or extend favored policies without being troubled with paying for them. But this is a vote to worsen economic conditions at a time so many of them claim inflation is the most pressing economic issue.  This is exactly the kind of legislative dealmaking where Congress claims a win while future generations – saddled by our ever-growing debt – lose.

A pivot towards responsible budgeting can begin with the smallest of steps. Agreeing not to engage in any new borrowing for the next three weeks – a mere 19 days – is about the easiest step any lawmaker can take this year.

We hope the reminder that borrowing during periods of high inflation makes the job of the Federal Reserve even more difficult will convince some lawmakers to agree to no new borrowing for the rest of 2022.

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For more information, please contact Kim McIntyre, Director of Media Relations, at mcintyre@crfb.org.