"Fiscal Crisis Is The New Normal"

Stephen Goldsmith lays out the ugly, awful, no-good, alarming fact:

Under reasonable budget and economic assumptions, the federal debt, now at about 40% of GDP could reach 200% of our total annual economy by 2038. Systemic economic meltdown – a currency crisis, for example – would likely occur before lenders allowed debt to reach those astronomical levels.

I disagree with his notion that stimulus this year to avoid a global abyss was misguided. I think it was prudent. But I share his conviction that this has only made long-term matters far worse. We were headed off the cliff anyway, but this recession has accelerated our journey thither. I also understand Goldsmith's worry that tax increases simply aren't politically viable. But it strikes me as completely utopian to think we can get back to sanity without some reform on the revenue side. This is only the first article in the series. But it's serious in a way Tea Party populists are not. And that's a good sign for fiscal conservatism.

(Hat tip: Yuval Levin.)