Sen. Todd Young leading latest effort to address national debt
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Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) is leading an effort to address America's fiscal imbalance and sounding the alarm about the danger of the ballooning national debt.
The big picture: The national debt is nearly $40 trillion, more than $113,000 for every person in the country.
- The federal government is expected to spend more than $1 trillion on interest this year, Young told Axios.
Between the lines: That's more than we spend on Medicare, the nation's largest health care program, and on national defense.
- "Obviously, this is unsustainable," Young said.
Driving the news: The Fiscal Commission Act introduced this month by Sens. Young, John Curtis (R-Utah) and Angus King (I-Maine) would create a bipartisan fiscal commission to find ways to stabilize spending and decrease the national debt.
- The 16-member commission would consist of 12 elected officials and four outside experts, appointed by the majority and minority leaders of the U.S. House and Senate.
- It would produce a report and propose legislation by May 2027.
Zoom in: The debt's impact on the national economy is hurting Hoosiers' ability to buy homes and grow their businesses and will, eventually, cause an economic crisis, says Carolyn Bourdeaux, executive director of the Concord Coalition, which advocates for fiscal responsibility.
- The solution, she says, is to put the budget on a path to balance over time. Too quickly, she said, would cause a different set of problems.
State of play: That's the goal of the Fiscal Commission Act.
- It calls for recommendations that stabilize the ratio of public debt to GDP within 15 years and improve the solvency of federal trust funds over 75 years.
- "We have an opportunity to avoid most of the pain," Young said. "I sense that this window … is closing very quickly."
- The act would allow any legislative proposals from the commission to get expedited consideration in both chambers.
Reality check: The idea of a fiscal commission to address the nation's ballooning debt isn't new.
The other side: In 2024, a group of 100 Democrats sent a letter to House leadership warning that such a commission could lead to cuts to Medicare and Social Security benefits.
- They pointed to past commissions that have historically recommended steps like cutting or privatizing Social Security, and argued that decisions on that scale shouldn't be left to "a small group of individuals behind closed doors."
The latest: Young told Axios he thinks the act has a "great chance" of getting passed this year.
What's next: Getting the Fiscal Commission Act created is just the first, and possibly easiest, step.
- Adopting solutions to tighten the national budget will likely require sacrifice — whether that's raising the retirement age or making cuts to entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.
- Public education is key, says Doug Holtz-Eakin, president of the American Action Forum and a distinguished fellow at Purdue's Daniels School of Business.
- "It requires some sacrifice," he said. "But that's an American tradition to sacrifice on behalf of the future, and this is a chance to do that."