Fox News: DC on Spending Binge With no Plan to Cut Back, as Debt Held by Public to Top GDP by Year's End

Article by Adam Shaw in Fox News website

Congressional budget scorekeepers sounded the alarm Friday just as President Trump signed another multibillion-dollar coronavirus response bill, reporting in a new projection that the federal budget deficit will hit a stunning $3.7 trillion in fiscal 2020, and debt held by the public is projected to surpass GDP by year's end.

This comes as Washington -- unlike the private sector -- has shown no inclination to tighten its belt as the economic impact from coronavirus lockdowns has put more than 26 million Americans out of work.

The deficit projection is more than double the $1.4 trillion budget deficit the U.S. racked up in 2009, the highest one-year federal deficit in terms of gross dollars in U.S. history.

The spending wheels have been spinning. Trump signed a $484 billion, “Phase 3.5” emergency interim package that replenishes a fund for small businesses and adds billions of dollars in aid to hospitals across the country.

That’s in addition to the first two coronavirus response bills worth $200 billion, and a $2.2 trillion stimulus package to boost the freefalling U.S. economy and get much-needed relief to struggling families and businesses.

The historic pace of spending -- and Washington's aversion to curbing the exploding debt during the boom that preceded this crisis -- has left fiscal hawks horrified.

“It’s one thing to run a deficit during a pandemic, but Washington’s long-term debt habit is suicidal,” Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., said in a statement Friday. “For decades, Republicans and Democrats spent money we don’t have at a rate our kids can’t afford. Republicans and Democrats maxed out the credit cards during good times and now, when we’re in the middle of the coronavirus’ health and economic crises, we’re facing a bleak future.”

“None of this is sustainable,” he said. “If politicians continue to ignore the problem, this debt will crush our kids.”

"The gargantuan federal bailout that just passed over $2 trillion brings us closer and closer to a point of no return," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor last week. "A point at which the world loses confidence in the dollar. A point at which our debt becomes an existential threat to our security."

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