Background
May 2025
Like many Americans, we are alarmed by the enormous size and continued growth of our national debt. We offer a direct and straightforward solution to the problem.
During an infamous episode in the summer of 2011, Congress and the President were deadlocked for weeks over the vote to increase the federal debt ceiling. Confidence was shaken when the vote to raise the debt limit did not sail through with what until then had always been routine approval. While the events were unpleasant to watch, they revealed a powerful tool with which political leaders of goodwill might chart a new path towards real and lasting fiscal responsibility.
Once the immediate crisis had settled, we wondered why no one had ever proposed a constitutional amendment to directly cap the growth of our nation's outstanding debt. Balanced budget amendments have been tried over the years, but an explicit limit on the growth of federal debt would be different and fundamentally stronger. Balanced budget requirements can be worked around, but an absolute debt cap cannot, as we saw so clearly that summer. A constitutional debt cap would allow for short-run deficits but would force fiscal balance over the full business cycle.
To illustrate, consider an amendment which would permit no more than 2% growth of the federal government's borrowing authority each year. This modest rate of growth would be sustainable, even healthy, in the long run. To earn broad-based support, and to avoid an undesirable sudden shock to the economy, the amendment would phase the limit in slowly over a transition period. So, for example, the limit on outstanding debt could grow by 6%, then 5%, then 4% in the first 3 years after ratification. The amendment would allow the debt cap to be raised in a case of extreme national emergency by, for example, a 75% majority of Congress. The actual terms would be established by negotiated agreement.
For the last fifty-five years, Presidents and members of Congress in both parties have failed to stop the runaway growth of our national debt. We cannot expect future leaders to do any better without a constitutional constraint.
Today's alarming level of debt, were it to be frozen, would not ruin the country. It is the prospect of ten or fifteen more years of an out-of-control debt trajectory that chills the financial, business and hiring sectors. Bending the arc towards a long-run sustainable national debt will be an effective, immediate, and no-cost benefit to the economy and society.
We realize that a constitutional amendment is not something to be approached lightly or accomplished easily. But stabilizing and strengthening our national finances for the long term is in the interest of every American, including the special interests who will loudly protest otherwise. Investing the political energy to accomplish this one thing will make the work of responsible fiscal stewards immensely easier now and in the future.
The next vote to raise the debt ceiling is an ideal opportunity for leaders in Congress to come together and start work on a sustainable debt amendment to the Constitution.
On the following pages we propose language for a Sustainable Debt Constitutional Amendment, and provide some questions and answers to further explain the rationale behind our proposal.
,
Like many Americans, we are alarmed by the enormous size and continued growth of our national debt. We offer a direct and straightforward solution to the problem.
During an infamous episode in the summer of 2011, Congress and the President were deadlocked for weeks over the vote to increase the federal debt ceiling. Confidence was shaken when the vote to raise the debt limit did not sail through with what until then had always been routine approval. While the events were unpleasant to watch, they revealed a powerful tool with which political leaders of goodwill might chart a new path towards real and lasting fiscal responsibility.
Once the immediate crisis had settled, we wondered why no one had ever proposed a constitutional amendment to directly cap the growth of our nation's outstanding debt. Balanced budget amendments have been tried over the years, but an explicit limit on the growth of federal debt would be different and fundamentally stronger. Balanced budget requirements can be worked around, but an absolute debt cap cannot, as we saw so clearly that summer. A constitutional debt cap would allow for short-run deficits but would force fiscal balance over the full business cycle.
To illustrate, consider an amendment which would permit no more than 2% growth of the federal government's borrowing authority each year. This modest rate of growth would be sustainable, even healthy, in the long run. To earn broad-based support, and to avoid an undesirable sudden shock to the economy, the amendment would phase the limit in slowly over a transition period. So, for example, the limit on outstanding debt could grow by 6%, then 5%, then 4% in the first 3 years after ratification. The amendment would allow the debt cap to be raised in a case of extreme national emergency by, for example, a 75% majority of Congress. The actual terms would be established by negotiated agreement.
For the last fifty-five years, Presidents and members of Congress in both parties have failed to stop the runaway growth of our national debt. We cannot expect future leaders to do any better without a constitutional constraint.
Today's alarming level of debt, were it to be frozen, would not ruin the country. It is the prospect of ten or fifteen more years of an out-of-control debt trajectory that chills the financial, business and hiring sectors. Bending the arc towards a long-run sustainable national debt will be an effective, immediate, and no-cost benefit to the economy and society.
We realize that a constitutional amendment is not something to be approached lightly or accomplished easily. But stabilizing and strengthening our national finances for the long term is in the interest of every American, including the special interests who will loudly protest otherwise. Investing the political energy to accomplish this one thing will make the work of responsible fiscal stewards immensely easier now and in the future.
The next vote to raise the debt ceiling is an ideal opportunity for leaders in Congress to come together and start work on a sustainable debt amendment to the Constitution.
On the following pages we propose language for a Sustainable Debt Constitutional Amendment, and provide some questions and answers to further explain the rationale behind our proposal.
,