Reconciliation Should Not Add to the Debt

For Immediate Release

Recent reports suggest the Senate Budget Committee is considering a budget that would call for $6 trillion in new spending, half offset with $3 trillion of tax increases and health care savings. The following is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

“The idea that we should expand government spending by $6 trillion, while adding a whopping $3 trillion more to the debt, is grounded in magical thinking or reckless abandonment. From a short-term perspective, the economy already has more stimulus than it can absorb. From a long-term perspective, we’re already slated to borrow $13.2 trillion over the next decade and lift debt to a record 113 percent of the economy. It is absurd that we are months behind in even producing a budget, and even more absurd if that is what it will propose.

I’m pleased we’re having an important conversation on how to better invest in our future, but we shouldn’t borrow from our kids to invest in them – particularly when we’re already borrowing so much to support massive consumption spending.

Borrowing to combat the COVID crisis made sense, but now it’s time to bring back the Conrad rule – reconciliation bills should not add to the debt. Not for tax cuts, not for new spending, and not because our lawmakers are unwilling to make the hard choices to pay for new initiatives.”

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For more information, please contact Ben Tomchik, deputy chief of staff, at tomchik@crfb.org.