The Cost of Not Deciding

For decades, Congress has postponed hard fiscal choices and borrowed instead. The cost of that failure is now consuming the room we need to make choices.

CBO's February 2026 baseline projected a federal deficit of about 5.8 percent of GDP in 2026 and debt held by the public rising from about 101 percent of GDP in 2026 to 120 percent in 2036. These are projections under current law, not guarantees. But the direction is clear: interest and accumulated debt are taking a larger share of the country's options.⁵

Social Security has a date printed on its shortfall. The 2026 Trustees Report projected that the retirement trust fund reserve will be depleted in 2032. Incoming revenue would then cover 78 percent of scheduled retirement benefits.⁶

For a retiree receiving just under $2,000 a month, that would mean roughly $440 less each month, about $5,000 a year. The exact amount will change. The choice will not disappear because Congress refuses to make it.

We are running out of time to restore Congress's ability to make hard decisions, even when a workable bargain is available. It is time to pursue agreements in which both sides gain something real, instead of treating any deal with the other side as betrayal.