A promising start has given way to challenging political realities for supporters of a bipartisan commission to tackle the federal government’s growing debt challenges.

For Mike Johnson it was effectively a Day 1 priority.

It’s well past time, the newly elected House speaker said in October, to establish a bipartisan commission to tackle the federal government’s growing $34.6 trillion in debt. “The consequences if we don’t act now are unbearable,” he said, echoing warnings from his predecessor and other House Republicans.

More than six months later, the proposal appears all but dead, extinguished by vocal opposition from both the right and the left.

The collapse underscores an unyielding dynamic in Washington, with lawmakers in both parties loath to consider the unpopular tradeoffs that would be necessary to stem the nation’s swelling tide of red ink — particularly in an election year. Facing the reality that any fiscal commission would almost certainly suggest that Americans pay more or get less from their government, lawmakers have time and again done what they do so well: punt the problem to the next Congress. And they seem poised to do so again.

  • @MacAttak8
    1•1 month ago

    The sad part is no Republican since Eisenhower in 1960 has had a balanced budget.

    Clinton handed GW Bush a budget surplus in 2001 and is the last time we’ve had a balanced budget.

    So by your definition Republicans have not been conservative in a very long time?

    https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFSD

    Edit: I initially listed LBJs 1969 surplus as the most recent Republican balanced budget due to a brain fart forgetting he was a Democratic politician.