Republicans Can’t Slay the Debt Dragon without Democrats

Why a bipartisan fiscal commission makes sense.

It won’t surprise conservatives to learn that Biden’s spending and inflation pushed the federal budget deficit to a massive $1.7 trillion last fiscal year. But this isn’t a case of plus ça change — the more things change, the more they stay the same. The federal debt as a share of the economy is now so large, and the outlook for future budget deficits is so bleak, that conservatives need to seriously consider backing the creation of a bipartisan fiscal commission — even if that means a substantial revenue hike.

The nation’s fiscal outlook makes for very unsettling reading. The Manhattan Institute’s Brian Riedl, in his annual budget book, makes that crystal clear. Riedl’s 133 charts and graphs paint a very ugly picture. Among the “highlights”: