This Crisis Is Flashing Danger and America Must Change Course or Our Children Will Pay
By: Chairman Jodey Arrington (TX)
As seen in Fox News
Like dashboard warning lights in a family car, the federal fiscal indicators are flashing danger. It’s time to pull over, lift the hood and fix the problem before it’s too late.
That’s the kind of service-station assessment we’re performing in the House Budget Committee, which I chair. Unfortunately, the fiscal repairs necessary to get us back on the road to financial health and prosperity require a lot more than a basic tune up.
The nation’s fiscal outlook is rapidly deteriorating following a two-year avalanche of new spending that added more than $6 trillion to our national debt and triggered painful, historic levels of inflation.
Our unprecedented, almost incomprehensible $31-trillion-plus national debt has eclipsed the size of our economy – the largest in the world.
Over the next decade, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, our annual deficits will double, our interest payments will triple, and for every dollar we borrow, 50 cents will go just to paying interest on this debt.
In just 10 years, interest payments alone will exceed what we spend on our entire national defense.
The only other time in American history that our debt-to-GDP ratio has been this high was in the aftermath of World War II. We were able to recover from that because we had the will to reduce our spending and the policies to grow our economy back to a healthy balance sheet.
Today, the road ahead is more dangerous due to potholes Washington created – potholes the size of swimming pools.
The nation’s fiscal outlook is rapidly deteriorating following a two-year avalanche of new spending that added more than $6 trillion to our national debt and triggered painful, historic levels of inflation.
Reckless spending and record inflation have left a trail of economic destruction for working families and small businesses in the form of shrinking paychecks, soaring interest rates, labor shortages, and a whole generation of Americans trapped in a cycle of poverty and government dependency.
What makes all of this more disturbing is that we were warned.
For the last three decades, the dashboard warning lights of demographics and rising automatic entitlement spending were flashing, our fiscal motor running hot. This administration’s response? All gas, no brake, and crank up the AC.
It is well past time to think about the unthinkable.
If we don’t change course – and soon – sustained stagnation could very quickly give way to a sovereign debt crisis that threatens not only our economy but our national security. Dwindling resources and dire choices would put our republic and our children’s future at risk.
The state of our fiscal union is unsustainable, but not unfixable.
The president had the opportunity to pull over, look under the hood and provide real leadership with his budget proposal.
Instead, he chose to ignore the warning signs and drive our taxes, spending and borrowing to their highest sustained levels in the history of our country.
In fact, even after massive taxes on families, job creators and energy producers, it still isn’t nearly enough to make up for the vast and radical expansion of government the president seeks.
All 10 years of the spending proposed in the president’s budget are at a quarter of our entire economy, a level we have not seen since the invasion of Normandy. And with his failed tax-and-spending policies constraining growth, our debt to GDP ratio will continue to deteriorate — hitting an unconscionable level of 220% by 2053.
At the State of the Union, the president kept saying, "finish the job." But his plan doesn’t even start the job of addressing the real challenges facing our country. His plan is far too radical, far too reckless and far too disconnected to meet this moment.
We must reverse course by stopping the spending spree, unlocking economic growth and fixing our nation’s finances before it’s too late.
If we don’t change course – and soon – sustained stagnation could very quickly give way to a sovereign debt crisis that threatens not only our economy but our national security. Dwindling resources and dire choices would put our republic and our children’s future at risk. The state of our fiscal union is unsustainable, but not unfixable.
As we look to lift our country out of this mess, several key principles emerge that must be included in any responsible plan:
- We must rein in the woke and wasteful bureaucracy and the out-of-control spending that created it;
- We must reduce unnecessary government burden and re-establish pro-growth policies that create jobs and promote prosperity for all Americans;
- We must end the era of dependency for able-bodied adults, encourage labor force participation, and restore the dignity of work;
- We must stop the assault on U.S. energy production and unleash American energy dominance; and
- We absolutely must prioritize the first and most important job of the federal government: the safety and security of the American people.
With uncommon courage and common-sense economic policies, we can stave off a debt crisis, strengthen America’s balance sheet and save the union.
The longer we wait to start this work, the more drastic our choices will be — and the more likely it becomes that future generations will be stranded on the side of the road in a cycle of government dependence.
If we do not have a sense of urgency about the task before us, our children will not inherit the blessings of liberty and opportunity, but instead will reap the whirlwind of an irreparable economic disaster.
A healthy balance sheet is the vehicle to advance a safe, strong, and prosperous nation.
But our dashboard is lighting up like a Christmas tree. It is signaling severe fiscal and economic danger. If we don’t respond with urgency, the car will break down and stall at the time our children are handed the keys. And what should be a repair job will turn into a car wreck.
Congressman Jodey Arrington is a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for the Nineteenth Congressional District of Texas. He serves as chairman of the House Budget Committee. He also serves on the House Ways and Means Committee and the U.S. Congress’ Joint Economic Committee.
