Great Ideas: The Debt – How Much is It Really, and What Can We Do About It‪?‬

Over the course of 2020 the federal government spent a MASSIVE amount trying to deal with the economic fallout of the pandemic. Republicans and Democrats agreed that in the face of crisis, America needed to put the fire out first, worry about all the water they were using later. But in 2021, people are beginning to worry about how much that all adds up to on top of the existing federal debt. Republicans say it’s a looming problem, Democrats say that’s just an excuse to oppose their priorities. So who’s right?  Our expert Brian Riedl explains the situation we’re in, and where we go from here.  Riedl is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, who previously worked for six years as chief economist to Senator Rob Portman (R-OH) and was the lead architect of the ten-year deficit-reduction plan for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign.