On the recordDecember 14, 2010
when the fiscal commission released its report on December 1, it started with the guiding principle on which all Americans can agree: We have a duty to make America better off tomorrow than it is today. But the picture is pretty bleak right now. Let me give a few examples. In 1982 our deficit had never exceeded $100 billion. By March of 2004, 22 years later, the debt was $3.7 trillion. Today, 6 years have passed, and the debt held by the public has ballooned to $8.7 trillion. The Federal debt was 33 percent of GDP in 2001. It is now 62 percent and on a trajectory to reach 90 percent of GDP by 2020. Interest on our national debt could rise to nearly $1 trillion annually by 2020. That is the entire amount of the individual income taxes we are collecting this year. It is impossible to look at these numbers and believe this trajectory will result in an America that is better for our children than it is for us. We cannot continue to just grow the debt and run huge deficits each year with the expectation that our children will pay the bill. This trend of borrowing will eventually have to come to an end one way or the other. The only question is, How are we going to reduce our deficit responsibly and in a bipartisan fashion and in a way that encourages investment and economic growth? Are we going to cruise blissfully along until some external crisis forces us to make these adjustments in the most sudden and painful way possible? The time for Congress to act is now.
