For more info visit www.newsinfusion.com As Congress Plans to Raise Debt Ceiling And President is Set to Deliver Budget, What Are the Implications of Our Rapidly Growing Debt? And What Can We Do About It? WASHINGTON (January 13, 2010) -- A new joint report from the National Research Council and the National Academy of Public Administration offers U.S. leaders ways to address the nation's fiscal problems and confront its rapidly growing debt -- a burden that if unchecked will inevitably limit the nation's future wealth and risk a disruptive fiscal crisis that could lead to a severe recession. The report offers tax and spending options that would stabilize the debt relative to the size of the economy within a decade. The report also provides a set of simple tests to determine whether any proposed federal budget would lead to long-term fiscal stability. Delaying action for even five or 10 years will make addressing the problem more painful and costly, requiring even higher taxes or greater spending cuts, the report notes. Delay also raises the risk that the nation's creditors – especially foreign governments – will conclude that the U.S. has no plan to restore fiscal stability and will require higher interest rates or make other economic demands. "Our committee members have varying political backgrounds and views, but we all agree that future economic prosperity is at grave risk if our nation does not change its fiscal course," said John Palmer, co-chair of the committee that wrote the report and university professor and dean emeritus of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. The committee includes three former heads of the Congressional Budget Office -- June O'Neill, co-chair Rudolph Penner, and Robert Reischauer -- and other experts.
