Smith, with the Concord Coalition, and others who lament Congress didn’t take advantage of the pre-pandemic years of growth to eliminate deficit spending and lower the national debt said not doing so after the pandemic has passed threatens to increase inflation and crowd out private borrowing.

Romney said fears the United States could not meet its debt obligations could drive up interest rates on Treasury securities that are sold to domestic and foreign investors to finance government. Interest on government debt was the fastest-growing portion of the annual federal budget last year, Smith said.