WTH is Going On with the Debt Limit Fight? Brian Riedl on our Fiscal Future

It’s a tale as old as time… where will our next trillion come
from to feed our hungry coffers? We jest, but only a little:
Negotiations on raising the debt limit are ongoing, marking,
ahem, dozens of times this has happened under both Democrats and
Republicans. Neither party has been able to summon the
wherewithal to sacrifice political clout for the good of the
long-term economy. Take healthcare spending: Democrats promote
top-down, regulatory spending, while Republicans support
consumer-based choice and competition. Fine – but costs haven’t
been fixed, efficiencies have not been produced, and Medicare has
an $80 trillion shortfall over 30 years. Who do we think is going
to bail us out? China and Japan hold a measly $2 trillion of our
debt and they are selling it; the Fed holds just $5 trillion and
they’re trying to downshift. Are we really going to rely on
American banks and savers and mutual funds to lend Washington
$100 trillion over the next 30 years at low interest rates? It is
not even a possible scenario. Our guest predicts that we are on a
path that ends in a 15% value-added tax and a payroll tax rising
close to 22% – yes, exactly like Europe.


Brian Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute,
focusing on budget, tax, and economic policy. Previously, he
worked for six years as chief economist to Senator Rob Portman
(R-OH) and as staff director of the Senate Finance Subcommittee
on Fiscal Responsibility and Economic Growth. From 2001-2011
Riedl served as the Heritage Foundation’s lead research fellow on
federal budget and spending policy. He also served as a director
of budget and spending policy for Marco Rubio’s presidential
campaign and was the lead architect of the ten-year
deficit-reduction plan for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.


Download the transcript here.