With the presidential primary season underway, voters should ask themselves which candidates are offering credible solutions to deal with the nation’s difficult fiscal challenges.
“Whoever becomes the next president will face an unsustainable rise in the debt that threatens to hurt economic growth and reduce living standards for decades to come,” say Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert L. Bixby and Maya MacGuineas, who heads the Campaign to Fix the Debt.
In a Fosters.com op-ed, they point out that the Congressional Budget Office projects that annual deficits will begin rising again this year and surpass $1 trillion by 2022.
“The accumulation of these deficits will drive up the debt – which is already at historically high levels – by more than $10 trillion over the next decade,” MacGuineas and Bixby write.
Early last year their organizations launched First Budget, a nonpartisan initiative to raise awareness, particularly in Iowa and New Hampshire, about the country’s fiscal challenges.
A recent First Budget report found that while candidates in both parties acknowledge that the rapidly growing debt is a problem, for the most part their actual proposals have fallen short of what’s needed.
“As the campaign enters a new phase,” Bixby and MacGuineas say, “candidates should show a true commitment to address the debt head-on.”
External links:
First Budget Report
CBO Update Shows Growing Debt Burden (Concord)
