DOGE won’t be enough to get debt under control
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Government debt has exceeded $36 trillion and continues mounting, with no end in sight. This is unsustainable absent dramatic changes in how we allocate our tax dollars.
Budget hawks have been rare in Washington since 2010, when the bipartisan Simpson-Bowles commission put forth a comprehensive plan to reduce spending and increase revenue, only to see it sink. Today, the problem is dire. Our ratio of federal debt held by the public to gross domestic product has grown from 61% in 2010 to 100% this fiscal year.
Left uncorrected for another four years, we will surpass the historic high of 106% that America hit at the end of World War II. It’s little wonder that more Republicans and Democrats are voicing concerns that American global power—backed by economic strength—is threatened by growing budget deficits. It’s time lawmakers seek solutions rather than argue about who’s to blame.
Several factors drive deficit spending, including an aging population and rapidly rising medical costs. But the major reason is reckless spending. President Trump deserves credit for trying to make the federal bureaucracy more efficient to reduce deficits.
His decision to create the Department of Government Efficiency put a much-needed brake on wasteful government spending. We caution the president, however, against relying on tariffs to raise revenues. Tariffs engender ill will among allies and other trading partners and allow China to seize a greater global role.
Further, tariffs risk domestic inflation by raising the costs of goods. As the president will remember, high prices caused political problems for Democrats last fall. But there are many steps the administration and lawmakers can take.
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