“We’ve got major fiscal problems and a completely unsustainable fiscal trajectory. I haven’t heard anyone, Democrat or Republican, witness or member, that [sic] doesn’t accept that fact,” Reason magazine quotes Rep. Jodey Arrington (R‑Texas), chairman of the House Budget Committee. “We won’t know when the dominoes fall on us in a sovereign debt crisis, it’s going to be difficult to put the pieces back together and maintain our global leadership.”
Eric Boehm, the Reason author, relays the gist of last week’s committee hearing. He also acknowledges the limits of the committee’s wherewithal: “While there is little disagreement about the seriousness of America’s fiscal problems, the committee hearing also inadvertently highlighted the immense difficulty of solving them.”
Which is why many people have yearned for something like a constitutional balanced budget amendment:
Of course, lawmakers don’t need a constitutional constraint to prevent them from borrowing too much. They could simply pass a budget that doesn’t depend on trillions of dollars in annual borrowing.
Yes, yes, it’s okay to laugh. But that is the thing that must happen.
Which brings us to DOGE, the “Department of Government Efficiency,” Trump’s brain trust on reducing government spending, headed by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy. Which Ron Paul has advised.
And now, so has David Stockman.
In a long piece on Substack, the former Reagan era budget bulldog offers “Memo To Musk & Ramaswamy: How To Cut $2 Trillion of Fat, Muscle And Bone — The Complete Plan.” It’s comprehensive and daring, but we’ll quote only the setup, where Stockman paints the picture of the challenge America faces:
