Congress mum on federal deficit hitting $2 trillion milestone

“Such extraordinarily high deficits are just one piece of our fiscal situation that is falling apart,” Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, said.

“The gross national debt recently hit the sobering milestone of $40 trillion; we’re now spending more on yearly interest costs than on our national defense; debt held by the public exceeds the size of our entire economy; and trust funds for programs that tens of millions of Americans rely on face insolvency in less than a decade.”

As of Thursday afternoon, however, even the so-called Republican “deficit hawks” in Congress haven’t responded to the news, following a pattern of lawmakers largely disregarding soaring deficit spending.

Congress sidestepped the automatic spending cuts to Medicare and other programs that are triggered by unpaid-for federal borrowing by wiping $3.4 trillion from the Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) scorecard last November.

In March, the House tanked a balanced budget resolution. The resolution would have capped federal spending each year at the average annual revenue of the previous three years, with exceptions for emergencies.

U.S. lawmakers have introduced balanced budget proposals hundreds of times over the past 50 years and over 100 times since 1999 alone. Only twice in American history has any balanced budget proposal passed either chamber of Congress; the Senate in 1982 and the House in 1995.

“It is clear that we have delayed the hard choices for far too long,” MacGuineas said. “If lawmakers want to fix our laundry list of issues, they should come together and agree to a plan to target reducing deficits to 3% of GDP – half their current level – and get to work on shoring up our trust funds. If not, we risk leaving future generations with damage that can’t be undone.”

The newest CBO report shows that spending on Social Security rose 5% over the past 11 months, while spending on Medicare and Medicaid increased by 8% for both. Interest payments on the debt rose by a 12%, while spending by the Department of Veterans Affairs rose 14%.