President and Congress must control spending

The country was steamrolled by the coronavirus, and the economic stimulus packages to help businesses and individuals have been staggering in costs. Admittedly, the aid was necessary. But it has left the nation with a mammoth $3.7 trillion deficit.

Before further stimulus packages are passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump, those leaders should commit to whittling down the nation’s $24 trillion in total debt, starting with the next federal budget which begins Oct. 1.

Focusing on the U.S. debt at a time when tens of thousands of Americans are dying from or lost their jobs because of COVID-19 might seem petty and irrelevant, but the unchecked spending in the past two months to counter the economic impact of the disease is alarming.

The $2.9 trillion in coronavirus stimulus aid already passed — and considerably more is being discussed by congressional leaders — will push this year’s federal deficit to $3.7 trillion. That’s the level of spending this year that exceeds the amount of revenue collected in U.S. taxes and fees.

Not since the end of World

War II has the nation’s deficit as a share of the main economic measure, the gross domestic product, risen so fast and so high. The Congressional Budget Office projects this fiscal year’s deficit will amount to nearly 19% of the GDP and the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget projects total U.S. debt will be 101% of the GDP.

The deficit proportion is twice as large as in any year since 1945. The total debt is forecast to climb to $30 trillion within five years, or to about $100,000 per American.

Worse, the skyrocketing deficit stems not from spending that will spur growth, but from spending simply trying to restore the status quo of a few months ago. Crushing debt without growth is not a best practice.

Balanced federal budgets, sadly, disappeared in 2001. To keep the debt from becoming a burden on our children and our children’s children, Congress and the president should assemble the next federal budget with a firm commitment to keep the annual deficit under $1 trillion and to adopt a plan to balance the budget within five years.