Editor’s Note: This editorial is the last in a series that looks at the challenges of tackling the growing federal debt and the specific programs that drive it. Previous installments covered the debt problem, Social Security, Medicare, veterans’ benefits, farm bill subsidies, defense spending, nondefense discretionary spending and tax reform.
Opinion We’ve seen how hard it is to fix the federal debt. But it’s necessary.
By the Editorial Board
July 11, 2023 at 9:00 a.m. EDT
The federal debt is on course to rise from 98 percent of gross domestic product at present to 115 percent by 2033, according to estimates by the Congressional Budget Office. This represents a slight improvement over its trajectory before the bipartisan debt limit deal President Biden signed June 2, but a risky level all the same. It’s nine percentage points above the previous record of 106 percent just after World War II. Debt levels this high force government to divert vast resources from potentially productivity-enhancing public investments to interest payments and, over time, could slow economic growth and increase the chances of a fiscal crisis, as the CBO warned in its latest long-term forecast for the budget and economy, published June 28.
The United States faces this predicament because of two principal factors. One is Congress’s chronic failure to match outlays to revenue by spending cuts, tax increases or some of both. The other is the inherent difficulty of the challenge, given an aging population’s demands for health care and other services, combined with this country’s global security responsibilities; even with a more determined Congress, it would be hard to identify $8 trillion in savings, which is how much it would take just to keep debt at its current share of GDP over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
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End of carousel- D.C. Council reverses itself on school resource officers. Good.
- Virginia makes a mistake by pulling out of an election fraud detection group.
- Vietnam sentences another democracy activist.
- Biden has a new border plan.
The D.C. Council voted on Tuesday to stop pulling police officers out of schools, a big win for student safety. Parents and principals overwhelmingly support keeping school resource officers around because they help de-escalate violent situations. D.C. joins a growing number of jurisdictions, from Montgomery County, Md., to Denver, in reversing course after withdrawing officers from school grounds following George Floyd’s murder. Read our recent editorial on why D.C. needs SROs.
Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) just withdrew Virginia from a data-sharing consortium, ERIC, that made the commonwealth’s elections more secure, following Republicans in seven other states in falling prey to disinformation peddled by election deniers. Former GOP governor Robert F. McDonnell made Virginia a founding member of ERIC in 2012, and until recently conservatives touted the group as a tool to combat voter fraud. D.C. and Maryland plan to remain. Read our recent editorial on ERIC.
In Vietnam, a one-party state, democracy activist Tran Van Bang was sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison and three years probation for writing 39 Facebook posts. The court claimed he had defamed the state in his writings, according to Radio Free Asia. In the past six years, at least 60 bloggers and activists have been sentenced to between 4 and 15 years in prison under the law, Human Rights Watch found. Read more of the Editorial Board’s coverage on autocracy and Vietnam.
The Department of Homeland Security has provided details of a plan to prevent a migrant surge along the southern border. The administration would presumptively deny asylum to migrants who failed to seek it in a third country en route — unless they face “an extreme and imminent threat” of rape, kidnapping, torture or murder. Critics allege that this is akin to an illegal Trump-era policy. In fact, President Biden is acting lawfully in response to what was fast becoming an unmanageable flow at the border. Read our most recent editorial on the U.S. asylum system.
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We’ve confirmed that for ourselves over the past four months, during which we have researched, debated and presented a series of proposals for reining in deficits and debt. The conversations around our table were intense at times, reflecting what were often differing but deeply held value judgments. Then, after publication of each installment, readers registered reactions that were usually thoughtful, occasionally praiseful, frequently critical and at times vitriolic.