By MICHAEL JAHR | Fall 2020
 

Picture the national debt as a steady drive up a mountainside, with presidents and members of Congress from both parties taking turns at the wheel, accelerating as the incline increases, year after year driving to new altitudes.

Now picture those drivers installing a turbocharger.

Trillion-dollar COVID-19 aid bills, a virus-ravaged economy and the relentless growth of entitlement programs could, by one estimate, add $5.8 trillion to the current $26.6 trillion debt. With new “stimulus” packages in play in Congress, short-term deficits and long-term public debt are likely to grow even more before the year is out.

Politicians are ignoring the long-term ramifications of spending trillions of dollars that don’t exist. Are they selling out America’s posterity for short-term political gain? Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson thinks so, and has publicly called on his congressional colleagues to exercise restraint. 

Badger Institute Senior Vice President Michael Jahr sat down with Sen. Johnson in mid-August to discuss the debt crisis, federal spending realities, the likelihood of entitlement reform and the likelihood of restoring federalism as a governing philosophy.