“A fiscal commission is direly needed,” Republican Senator Mike Braun, a Budget Committee member, said in an interview.
Braun said deficits and debt could become an important issue in the 2024 elections, especially as “the heavy weight of paying interest will start crowding out all the other things,” referring to the cost of federal programs ranging from defense to homeland security.
Somehow he fails to mention how this ballooning debt was precipitated by the tax cuts he and his ilk passed under Trump, followed by the constant threat of shutdown and defaulting on debts by his party.
Expect nothing but nonsense from Republican leadership on this issue.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
WASHINGTON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - The U.S. Congress is facing growing calls to find a way to stem rising budget deficits and debt following this month’s warning by Moody’s that political dysfunction could lead it to lower the federal government’s credit rating.
There is no rocket science to the three basic choices for grappling with a national debt that has doubled in just the last decade and stands at $33.7 trillion, around 124% of GDP: raise taxes, cut spending or do a combination of the two.
Braun said deficits and debt could become an important issue in the 2024 elections, especially as “the heavy weight of paying interest will start crowding out all the other things,” referring to the cost of federal programs ranging from defense to homeland security.
For example, Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics, which operates independently from its parent company’s ratings business, pitched a new tax on greenhouse gas emissions and changing the government’s formula for determining cost-of-living adjustments for federal benefit programs.
Economists Dana Peterson and Lori Esposito Murray of the Conference Board, a non-profit business research group, suggested a 2043 goal of reducing debt-to-GDP to 70% through tax increases and spending cuts.
Several lawmakers said a commission could succeed only if it had the power to force Congress to act on its recommendations, which could in turn make Republicans either go along or scrap their long-held opposition to tax hikes, if such measures are suggested.
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