Opinion: After the U.S. credit downgrade, let’s talk about a radical budgetary change
Fitch Ratings just downgraded the U.S. government’s credit rating due in part to Congress’s erosion in governance. Indeed, year after year, we see the same political theater unfold: last-minute deals, deficits and, all too often, the passage of gigantic omnibus spending bills without proper scrutiny, along with repeated debt-ceiling fights and threats of shutdown.
Adding insult to injury, the budget process has become a winner-takes-all competition, leaving the minority party with little-to-no voice in budgetary outcomes. Under these conditions, battles over the debt ceiling, continuing resolution votes and threats of shutdowns are the only ways for the voiceless to state their demands.
What we need is a comprehensive budget process under which programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are no longer permitted to grow without meaningful oversight. Combined with other mandatory, more-or-less automatic spending items, they make up more than 70% of the budget. Thus, they must be included in the regular budget process and subjected to regular review.
Enter a “BRAC”-style fiscal commission, an idea promoted by the Cato Institute’s Romina Boccia. This commission would be staffed with independent experts appointed by the president.
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