New long-term projections on the federal budget show how disconnected today’s political debates are from the key issues involved in putting the country on a responsible path for the coming decades, according to two former state senators in New Hampshire.
These projections by the Congressional Budget Office “should be required reading on the campaign trail,” Harold Janeway and Ed Dupont write in a guest column this week in the Nashua Telegraph (N.H.)
Janeway is a Democrat; Dupont, who served as president of the state senate, is a Republican. Both serve on the New Hampshire Cabinet for First Budget, a joint initiative by The Concord Coalition and Fix the Debt to encourage presidential candidates to better address the nation’s fiscal challenges.
“Republicans who have been coming to New Hampshire in advance of our first-in-the-nation primary tend to promote the economic benefits of lower taxes and reduced spending,” Dupont and Janeway say. “By contrast, Democrats tend to emphasize the economic benefits of more investment spending funded by higher taxes on the wealthy.”
While these are legitimate debates, the CBO report “makes the biggest fiscal challenge clear: an aging population and rising health care costs will dramatically increase pressure on the federal budget from entitlement programs over the next 25 years.”
Janeway and Dupont say presidential candidates must clearly explain to voters – with as much specificity as possible — how they would put the government on a more responsible path.
External links:
First Budget Home Page
