Former Sen. Gregg: Debt Crisis Forces Fiscal Responsibility

A crisis over the government’s $14.3 trillion debt ceiling sounds ominous. But it may be just what the doctor ordered to make the country’s leaders put fiscal policy back in order, says former Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

“The federal government, which since the end of World War II has spent an average of 19.8 percent of gross domestic product, is this year going to spend 24 percent,” he writes on The Hill. “That number will rise to 26 or 27 percent over the next seven years . . . It is unsustainable.”

Washington has an obligation to correct this mess. “If the only way our government can be forced to act is in crisis, then let’s not increase the debt ceiling,” Gregg writes. “Let’s have the crisis and let’s move this nation toward actions that will result in real long-term improvements to our fiscal health.”