A newly introduced bipartisan bill in Congress would require the U.S. Congressional Budget Office to include the cost of interest payments when calculating the cost of a piece of legislation.
Currently, the CBO is responsible for estimating the costs of bills and serves as the standard for lawmakers when evaluating and debating legislation.
However, interest payments on the national debt are now a major federal expense, more than the cost of national defense and Medicare.
“Interest payments on the national debt are a massive expenditure and Congress needs to be fully informed of those long-term costs if we want to be truly fiscally responsible,” said Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, one of the lawmakers behind the bill. “Requiring estimates on the interest costs of legislation is a simple way to facilitate better budgeting.”
The Cost Estimates Improvement Act is the new bill in question, introduced by Reps. Michael Cloud, R-Texas, along with other Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
“The American people deserve a government that operates with more transparency, not less,” Cloud said in a statement. “Interest payments on our national debt have now surpassed $1 trillion for the first time – outpacing even our entire defense budget.
“This staggering reality is a direct consequence of Washington’s reckless spending,” he added. “Yet, Congress routinely passes legislation without accounting for the full cost, misleading taxpayers about the financial burden being placed on future generations.”
The national debt is over $36 trillion with deficits near or over $2 trillion annually, varying from year to year.
Interest costs on the national debt have nearly tripled since 2000 according to the Committee for Responsible Federal Budget. Now, the nation spends more only on Social Security.
“As lawmakers assess a bill’s long-term impact on our national debt, it’s important we’re seeing the full picture,” Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Wash., said in a statement.
