Opinion | It’s necessary to tame the national debt. And surprisingly doable. (2024)

Bipartisan neglect of the debt would be excusable if the underlying problem were somehow solving itself, but the opposite is true. The nation’s debt as a share of economic output is on track to surpass its record in the wake of World War II by 2027 and skyrocket from there. Interest payments on U.S. borrowing alone are on course to hit $12 trillion over the next decade. Net interest is the fastest growing category of federal spending. For the first time ever, interest costs will exceed defense spending this fiscal year.

The list of possible long-term negative consequences includes high interest rates, severe budget cuts and even a government default. Fortunately, it is not only necessary to solve the problem but also feasible, as a new project launched Tuesday by the Peter G. Peterson Foundation shows.

The foundation asked seven think tanks from across the ideological spectrum to submit detailed plans for putting the debt back on a sustainable trajectory. Every single institution agreed that American borrowing must be reined in. “It gives me hope to see a couple hundred different policy proposals that could solve this,” said Michael A. Peterson, chief executive of the foundation. “This is a solvable challenge for the United States.” (The think tanks include: the American Action Forum, the American Enterprise Institute, the Bipartisan Policy Center, the Center for American Progress, the Economic Policy Institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Progressive Policy Institute.)

Each proposal reduces the ratio of debt to gross domestic product by at least one-third by 2054 relative to the Congressional Budget Office’s current forecast. In contrast to Republican claims that cutting wasteful spending is sufficient and Democrats’ belief that raising taxes on the rich is enough, the think tanks all curbed debt through both revenue raisers and spending cuts, though the precise mix varies from plan to plan.

Politics is the main obstacle to getting this done. But the Peterson report shows where Congress and the next president could realistically begin. Many reforms have fairly widespread ideological support. The three most urgent areas for reform are Social Security, health-care costs and the tax cuts Congress enacted under Mr. Trump in 2017 that permanently reduced taxes for businesses but expire at the end of 2025 for individuals. Within each, there are feasible starting points for bipartisan action that would not impose substantial sacrifices on low- and middle-class earners.

Proposed Social Security reforms enjoyed the most consensus. The program will become insolvent in a bit more than a decade, and all proposals extend solvency by at least 30 years. A majority of the think tanks favor both increasing the cap on earnings subject to the payroll tax and raising the retirement age. The savings would fund a basic minimum benefit with $741 billion left for deficit reduction, under the most conservative estimates. Such a combination shows that there are bipartisan ways to increase Social Security solvency while shoring up benefits for those who need them most.

Nearly half of the institutions favor streamlining Parts A, B and D of Medicare. There are many other viable reform proposals for the program, but consolidating the payment structure into a single plan alone would save more than $100 billion without sacrificing quality of care.

Thornier still, politically and fiscally, are the tax cuts. The next administration and Congress have to address this issue when the GOP tax law’s individual cuts expire in 2025. The lower rates passed by Mr. Trump for the bottom three tax brackets should be maintained while the top marginal tax rate on high-income earners should return to 39.6 percent, up from its current 37 percent. All but two of the think tanks also favor extending the full repeal of the personal exemptions passed in the 2017 tax cuts and set to expire at the end of 2025. That’s one of the highest revenue-generating proposals, with nearly $2 trillion saved over 10 years.

Most of the think tanks also call for getting rid of the debt ceiling — an idea we also endorse. Currently, Congress must authorize the Treasury to borrow for spending that has already been passed. This archaic procedure does not constrain spending but does needlessly raise the risk of default by provoking a game of chicken between the parties.

The Peterson Foundation project proves it’s possible to fix the debt. Even more importantly, it shows a bipartisan framework of where to begin.