Members of Congress Warn About Looming Debt Crisis

As Republicans in Congress explore how they will accomplish President Donald Trump’s agenda through budget reconciliation, concerns about a national debt crisis percolate in the background.

“Whether new spending comes in the form of tax relief or actual new spending, such as a border wall … it will have to be offset, because it can’t result in a net increase to the deficit,” Rep. Andy Harris, chair of the powerful House Freedom Caucus, said in a statement.

The United States national debt currently stands at $36 trillion. In 2000, the debt stood at only $6 trillion. Now the United States pays more each year now on the interest on the debt than on national defense and Medicare. Last year, the United States spent $1.2 trillion on interest payments, which was the highest ever recorded. 

Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., has been pushing for at least $2.5 trillion in cuts to government spending over 10 years. Even that is small compared to what would be needed to balance the federal budget, which has not been fiscally sound since 2001.

“Finally, we have a chance to get this spending crisis right. House Republicans have been talking numbers with President Trump, so we’ll see where that lands. I am in the camp that believes we need to at least restore pre-COVID spending levels through reconciliation and appropriations,” Norman told The Daily Signal.

“Look, our national debt is already over $36 trillion. People can’t even comprehend how much that actually is. Think about it in terms of time: One million seconds is 11 and a half days. One billion seconds is 31 and a half years. One trillion seconds is 31,710 years. To me, this paints the picture of how dire this moment is for our country,” Norman said.

Richard Stern, director of the Grover M. Hermann Center for the Federal Budget at The Heritage Foundation, noted that “every time the government spends a dollar, it commits to steal a dollar.”

Stern emphasized the consequences of reckless, prolonged government spending. As to how the government spends and steals, Stern explained, “That can happen through higher taxes or larger deficits. The deficits produce higher inflation rates and higher interest rates. Mortgage rates at a crushing 7%, and the 20% price spike for most families over the last 4 years, all both results of reckless federal deficits and spending.”

One incumbent member of Congress who has proposed plans to get back to a balanced budget is Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis. In the case of Johnson’s plan he argues that the COVID-19 era spending was simply out of control, and that the United States needs to align its spending with its population growth and inflation when there are no national emergencies.

“If your family and you have a major medical problem, and you have to borrow $50,000 to pay for medical bills, once your family member is well, you don’t keep borrowing $50,000 and keep spending at that level,” Johnson told Fred Lucas of The Daily Signal. 

Harris’ predecessor at the Freedom Caucus, former Rep. Bob Good, a fiscal hawk who served in Congress from 2021 to 2015, explained why financial responsibility was needed now more than ever. 

“I think the debt is one of the greatest threats to the country. I think it’s one of the reasons why the American people gave Republicans full control of government. I think people, having suffered under 40-year-high inflation and 20-year-high interest rates, realized something needs to change, and that the days of spending without consequence are over,” Good told The Daily Signal.

Good stressed that Republicans have the power now to make a real change. 

“Well, this is the moment that Republicans in the House must meet, and some of those very same members who like to publicly cheerlead the great work that DOGE is trying to do are the very same members who voted against all the spending cuts at the House Freedom Caucus members and other conservatives tried to push through to Republican House the last two years,” Good told The Daily Signal.

Good highlighted that it was up to the voters to hold their elected officials accountable if they really wanted fiscal reform.

“But as long as Republican voters are willing to tolerate and elect and reelect members just because they have an R after their name and they’re not a Democrat, then you’re going to continue to get Republicans in office who betray the trust of the American people and fail to do what they say they’re going to do,” Good concluded.

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