If it is broke, try to fix it

By STEVE BRAWNER

Would a two-year budget process and another 18-member commission help the federal government stop spending so much money it doesn’t have?

You know the old saying: If it is broke, try to fix it. Or something like that.

The ideas listed in the first paragraph are included in the Budgeting for a Better America Act, a bill introduced in the House of Representatives by Arkansas’ U.S. Rep. Steve Womack and three other House members. Of the four, two are Republicans including Womack, and two are Democrats. A similar bill hasn’t been introduced in the Senate.

The bill has two major proposals.

First, it would create a biennial budgeting process – every two years – to replace the broken yearly process through which the national debt has skyrocketed to $39.3 trillion – equal to roughly $115,000 for every American

How broken? As noted in a news release from Womack’s office, Congress has only adopted a budget resolution on time six times since 1974. Not once since fiscal year 1997 has it finished all 12 appropriations bills – the ones that spend the money – before the federal fiscal year begins Oct. 1. 

Congress’ perpetual tardiness has contributed to a cycle of government shutdowns, shutdown threats, and continuing resolutions that temporarily maintain the status quo. Instead of responsibly addressing changing needs, Congress often governs through manufactured crises.

Would Congress do any better with a two-year budget process, or would it simply argue and piddle for two years instead of one? Womack and his fellow sponsors hope it would be the former. 

The nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget – one of the few voices in Washington calling for deficit reduction – supports the idea. 

The Budgeting for a Better America Act would also create an 18-member bipartisan commission appointed by the president and congressional leaders. Its purpose would be to develop policies that would achieve a 3% annual deficit-to-gross domestic product ratio within 10 years.

That’s a modest goal. It would mean the federal government would still be borrowing the equivalent of 3% of the nation’s economy every year. Doing so would create a lot more debt over 10 years. But it would be less than the current 5.8% ratio does.

In other words, Uncle Sam would be using a smaller shovel to continue digging a very deep hole. 

The commission also would be tasked with creating long-term solutions that would stabilize the nation’s finances. That part would include addressing the funding challenges facing Social Security, Medicare and other government programs. 

The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget supports the commission, too, and so do I. But again, there’s no guarantee it would make any progress. Twelve members of the commission would have to agree on its resolution. The House and Senate would have to approve it, and then the president would have to sign it. Then it would have to be implemented.

This has been tried recently, by the way. On Feb. 18, 2010, President Obama created by executive order the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. The 18-member commission was tasked with proposing recommendations to balance the budget, excluding interest payments, by 2015. Better known as the Simpson-Bowles commission after its two co-chairs, it considered serious recommendations but couldn’t get the required 14 members to agree. So nothing happened.

The national debt was $12.4 trillion the day the executive order was issued. Sixteen years later, it’s $39.3 trillion.

In those intervening years, Congress has done nothing to stop the bleeding and instead has consistently worsened it. Last year, Congress and the president passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which extended and expanded tax cuts they previously had passed in 2017. The Congressional Budget Office estimated last year’s cuts would increase deficits by $4.7 trillion through fiscal year 2035. All six members of Arkansas’ congressional delegation, including Womack, voted for it along with the 2017 tax cuts. 

Meanwhile, spending has grown. The federal government spent $3.5 trillion in fiscal year 2010. In fiscal year 2025, it doubled that amount to $7 trillion. 

Womack’s bill includes a number of other provisions. One would require the president’s annual budget request to analyze the government’s unfunded obligations. Those include Social Security and Medicare, whose trust funds are quickly moving to insolvency. 

One of the others would require the Congressional Budget Office to conduct a deficit briefing for new members of Congress.

I volunteer to help.

Steve Brawner’s column is syndicated to 24 news outlets in Arkansas. Email him at brawnersteve@mac.com.