The United States is a great country.
However, we are not as great as many Americans think we are.
We need to learn from history and others if we want our nation to stand the test of time, making sure that our future is better than our past.
As we approach the nation’s 250th anniversary in 2026, we should reflect on some of the key principles on which our nation and constitutional republic was founded.
These include a limited but effective federal government, individual liberty and opportunity, personal responsibility and accountability, rule of law and equal justice under the law, fiscal responsibility and inter-generational equity, and stewardship.
The American Constitution was an unprecedented attempt to create a nation of "We the People," who were committed to a representative form of government and an ongoing effort to "form a more perfect union" over time.
If our nation’s Founding Fathers came back today, they would be pleased and proud as to how large and powerful our nation has become, and the progress we have made, in connection with some of the key issues that divided us at our founding (e.g., slavery).
However, they would be disappointed with how we have strayed from many of our founding principles that made us great, and they would be concerned about our future.
In particular, they would be shocked that we seemed to have abandoned our longstanding commitment to stewardship — specifically, that the "baby boom" generation is not leaving things better off and better positioned for the future in connection with our nation’s finances.
George Washington, in particular, would be disappointed that we have not heeded the four warnings in his farewell address — namely to avoid excessive debt, foreign wars, regionalism, and factionalism (partisanship).
Our nation’s Founding Fathers were also students of history, various scholars, and societies. They sought to learn lessons from the great Greek and Roman philosophers and their civilizations.
Unfortunately, many Americans, including many of our political leaders, are not students of history and other countries.
If they were, they would understand that our future is "at risk." While we rank highly on many things, we are below average in several key areas that will have a disproportionate impact on our future (e.g., fiscal responsibility, K-12 education outcomes, healthcare outcomes, growing income, and wealth gaps).
Regarding history, the Roman Empire was one of the greatest superpowers of all time. Rome was initially a republic like the U.S. for about five hundred years and then became an autocracy for about another five hundred years.
The Roman Empire fell for many reasons.
These included fiscal irresponsibility, political incivility, moral decline, overextended military, and inability to control its borders.
Do these sound familiar?
Today the U.S. is the world’s leading superpower with global economic and military power, along with global diplomatic and cultural influence.
However, we are being challenged by a rising China and a growing alliance against U.S. and western interests led by China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.
History tells us that the leading indicator in connection with the rise and fall of great powers is the economic power of the nation.
Economic power leads to greater military capabilities and increased diplomatic and cultural influence. History also tells us that a nation that cannot put its finances in order will lose economic power over time.
A professional, objective, and non-partisan look at U.S. economic and federal fiscal data demonstrates that the federal government has grown too big, promised too much, subsidized too many, lost control of its finances, is not focused on linking resources to results, and has usurped states’ rights.
For example, total federal spending has grown from 2% of the economy in 1912, to about 24% today and is growing. Mandatory direct spending has grown from about 3% of the federal budget in 1912, to over 70% today and is growing.
When you add the approximate $1.7 trillion in annual tax expenditures, Congress only controls about 15% of total spending.
It has written a blank check for the rest. How can you call this a budget?
The federal government still lacks a comprehensive and integrated strategic plan that is future-focused, result- oriented, and resource-constrained.
It's focused on spending more money, issuing more regulations, providing more tax preferences, and growing the bureaucracy without knowing whether its actions are achieving the desired outcome-based results.
As a result, our federal government is flying blind in mountains of debt, without an instrument panel, while running low on fuel.
The cold and hard truth is that no nation is exempt from the laws of prudent finance, including the United States.
Every major federal fiscal and monetary agency has said that the federal government has been on an unsustainable fiscal path for years.
Now many business leaders, ratings agencies, and international institutions (e.g., IMF) are echoing the call for reforms to put the U.S. on a more prudent and sustainable fiscal path.
While many focus on the current federal debt subject to the debt ceiling of about $35 trillion, this is just the tip of the iceberg that is threatening the USS United States.
According to the most recent consolidated federal financial statements and subsequent events, total federal liabilities and unfunded social insurance obligations are about $125 trillion and growing faster than the economy.
To put things into perspective, $35 trillion and $125 trillion are about $103,000 and $368,000 for every person in the U.S., respectively.
Our current debt/GDP debt burden is already too high and continues to increase.
Total debt subject to the debt ceiling is at a record of about 125% of the economy and, according to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), is projected to grow to at least 166% and rising in 30 years.
The CBO’s latest report projects $2 trillion annual deficits for at least the next 10 years, absent a change of course.
Unbelievably, we now spend more on interest than on national defense, and interest represents our fastest growing federal expense.
And what do we get for interest? Nothing.
While Social Security is one of the most important and popular federal social insurance programs, the retirement and supplemental insurance trust fund is expected to become exhausted in 2033.
If that happens, benefits will automatically be cut by 21% and rising.
This is unacceptable from both a social and political perspective, and yet none of the major presidential candidates have a plan to avoid it.
It is now becoming clear that for the 28th year in a row, Congress will not pass all the federal appropriations bills by the beginning of the fiscal year.
The result will either be another continuing resolution or a partial government shutdown.
Despite claims by some to the contrary, there is not a party of fiscal responsibility today and the last fiscally responsible president was Bill Clinton.
It's time to face the facts.
Failure to put our federal finances in order will have serious adverse economic security, national security, international relations, and domestic tranquility consequences over time.
It also means that the U.S. could lose its superpower status and that our collective future may not be as good as our past.
This is unacceptable and un-American. It's time to quit mortgaging the future of our nation and younger/future generations of Americans.
Three things are needed to restore fiscal sanity and sustainability.
First, we need a president who will make fiscal responsibility a top priority and who will use the presidency's "bully pulpit" of the presidency, and actually lead.
Unfortunately, neither of the current major presidential candidates have a credible plan to defuse our ticking debt bomb and save Social Security.
This needs to change.
Second, we must adopt a federal fiscal responsibility constitutional amendment that will limit the growth of the federal government and the amount of debt that the federal government can take on, absent a formal declaration of war or a major unexpected emergency with a super-majority vote in Congress.
The statutory debt ceiling has failed to constrain our mounting debt burdens and only a constitutional amendment can bind both current and future Congresses.
House Concurrent Resolution 24 (HCR 24) addresses this issue and should be voted on by both the House and Senate this coming Constitution Day.
Finally, we need to enact a statutory fiscal sustainability commission that will actively engage the American people, solicit input, and make a package of recommendations to reduce and stabilize debt/GDP at a reasonable level, and save Social Security, for an up-or-down vote in Congress.
Everything should be on the table, including mandatory spending, discretionary spending, and revenues, but all things are not equal.
The House Fiscal Commission Act has already been passed, out of the House Budget Committee, on a bipartisan basis.
This legislation should be passed either separately or as part of any continuing resolution this year. It's wholly unrealistic to expect that Congress will make the tough spending and revenue choices on a piecemeal basis and via the regular order.
We have kicked the can down the road for far too long. It's time to do something.
Recently, both of us worked together to draft the "Contract From the American People."
It includes 10 policy issues that are of great concern to the American people, including the ones mentioned above, and ways to address them.
Our hope is to get several million Americans to sign this contract to motivate our next president and Congress to act.
You can find the contract at www.JoefromTexas.com. If you share our concern regarding America’s future, please review it, sign it, and share it.
Finally, if you want to learn more about where we stand, where we are headed, how we compare to others, and what we can do to defuse our ticking debt bomb and address other key policy challenges, check out www.Americain2040.com.
We can, we must, and hopefully we will do what it takes to create a better future. But in the final analysis, it is "We the People" who are responsible and accountable for what does or does not happen in our nation’s capital.
Please join us in fighting for America’s future.
The Hon. David M. Walker is the former comptroller general of the United States.
Joe Penland, Sr. is the founder of Quality Mat Company, based in Beaumont, Texas.
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