OPINION:
As we and other senior military and economic leaders have stated, the greatest threat to our national security is the growing burden of national debt, a threat that has grown exponentially in the 21st century. At the end of the Cold War, the U.S. benefited from a peace dividend, with defense spending decreasing as a share of gross domestic product. The federal budget was balanced, the economy grew dramatically and total federal debt as a share of GDP fell from 119% in 1946 to 32% in 1980.
For the past two decades, the federal government has increased spending more rapidly than the growth in GDP and has financed much of this increased spending by borrowing. Total federal debt as a share of GDP has more than doubled, from 55% in 2000 to 122%, and is projected to increase to almost 200% by midcentury.
The U.S. has emerged as one of the most heavily indebted nations in the world, and financial markets are signaling that this growth in debt is unsustainable. Interest rates on U.S. debt have increased sharply, and Asian and other nations that have been major purchasers of this debt in the past have curbed their appetite. Some nations are also working together to reduce reliance on the dollar as a reserve currency. We are now experiencing stagflation, not unlike that of the 1970s, but with a debt burden comparable to that incurred during World War II.
Congress has abandoned fiscal responsibility, and we can no longer rely on elected officials to restore fiscal sanity and sustainability. The budget process is broken as elected officials frequently trade off increased domestic spending for more defense spending and charge it to the nation’s credit card. The debt ceiling has failed, and other statutory fiscal rules have not stood the test of time. The challenge now is to design more effective fiscal rules to constrain spending yet give elected officials the flexibility to respond to wars and other real emergencies.
Other countries, such as Switzerland, have enacted effective fiscal rules in their constitutions. The Swiss “debt brake” was passed as an amendment to their constitution through a citizen initiative with support from 85% of their citizens. The “debt brake” has been in place for several decades and has enabled Switzerland to significantly reduce debt as a share of GDP. A Swiss-style ‘debt brake’ has also been enacted in other European countries and in the European Union.
The U.S. now has an opportunity to enact an effective fiscal rule in our Constitution. Rep. Jodey Arrington, Texas Republican, and other co-sponsors have introduced HCR 101 calling for an Article V Convention of States to propose amendments. That legislation would require that the nation’s archivist store and count the many “fiscal responsibility amendments” that have been submitted over the years, and once the requisite number of applications has been received, to notify the Congress that it must call the convention. Recent research of the Congressional Record has discovered that the requisite number of state applications was achieved in 1979, yet Congress failed to act. Companion Senate legislation will soon be introduced.
In an Oct. 7 New York Times column, Jamelle Bouie argues that the Constitution is the enemy of democracy. He states that “a constitution that subverts majority rule, fuels authoritarian movements and renders popular sovereignty inert is not a constitution that can be said to protect, secure or even enable American democracy.” Mr. Bouie and other critics fail to recognize that under Article IV, the Constitution guarantees us the U.S. is a republic and a representative democracy, not a direct democracy. The Constitution provides rights to both the federal government and the states for the benefit of the American people. This was a key and intentional decision of our nation’s founders.
Critics argue that a Convention of States to propose amendments would “run away.” This is false and just serves to sanction the unsustainable status quo. Our nation’s founders knew that they didn’t get everything right either for their generation or for future ones. They anticipated that Congress could fail to act in connection with critical national issues and incorporated in Article V the right of the states to also propose amendments to help make our country a more perfect union.
We can no longer count on Congress to put our nation’s finances in order. An Article V Convention of States to propose a ‘fiscal responsibility amendment’ to the Constitution is needed to provide the necessary correction. Failure to restore fiscal sustainability will have serious adverse economic, national security and domestic tranquility consequences over time.
• David M. Walker is the former comptroller general of the United States. Retired Adm. Bill Owens is former vice chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Along with professor emeritus at University of Colorado Boulder Barry W. Poulson, they are the founders of the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.