Reopen the Government Without Adding More Debt

The federal government has been operating under a shutdown since the beginning of the month. Although the government continues many of its core functions during a shutdown, many federal employees are currently under furlough and many federal programs and agencies are at least partially shuttered.  

Negotiations to reopen the government remain stalled around several issues related to spending levels, presidential authority over appropriations, a possible extension or modification of the health insurance subsidy expansion scheduled to expire at the end of the year, and possible changes to the health care savings included in the reconciliation bill earlier this year.  

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

It’s past time for Congress and the White House to do their job and reopen the federal government, putting an end to this latest example of Washington dysfunction.

Reopening the government should not be conditioned on more federal borrowing. The price tags that have been floated for various health changes should not be considered unless they come with pay-fors.  

If lawmakers want to have a separate discussion over health care, there are many ways to lower overall costs and also options for targeted and paid-for subsidy extensions. Adding more to the debt should be totally out of the question.

Plain and simple: a government shutdown should not be an excuse for more borrowing.  

Millions of American households are expected to make a budget for their needs and pay their bills on time. The fact that the United States government falls short on these basic functions is just more proof that our budget process is painfully broken. And the longer we drag this out, the more disruption there will be.  

We have not passed a budget on time in 22 years. We have not passed all the appropriations on time in 29 years. And we have relied on backstops to fund the government for the past 25 years.  

We need to open the government, overhaul the budget process, and stop the madness when it comes to federal borrowing.  

With interest costs surging and the national debt approaching record levels as a share of the economy, there’s simply no excuse for our elected officials to make a functioning government contingent on more borrowing. 

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