The Republican debate elephant that won’t be in the room Wednesday night (hint: it’s not Trump)

The most pressing problem in America right now is the one no one wants to talk about. As Republican candidates (minus former President Donald Trump) line up to debate Wednesday night, they may be asked about the ballooning national debt and the resulting drag on the economy. They may offer a few solutions that nibble at the edges. But the real truth is ugly, painful, and unpopular.  

Candidates understand that the American people want the debt burden reduced. But we don’t want to hear the truth of what it would take to actually do it. How will the candidates on the debate stage Wednesday night straddle that line in a world where they’re being asked both to solve the problem and to garner votes and do it in less than 90 seconds? It will be the most difficult needle to thread.

Since we hit the $33 trillion debt threshold, we are adding over $800 million an hour in new debt.  We’re accumulating more than $2 billion a day in interest on that debt.  And thanks to the most recent debt ceiling bill, there will be no cap on that debt until January 2025.  There is no greater threat to our future freedom and prosperity.

Can anything be done to slow this runaway train of inflationary government debt?

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Democrats unsuccessfully try to argue the “Trump Tax Cuts” drove up the deficit.  In reality, the tax cuts helped grow the economy and revenue to the Treasury was at an all-time high.  Unfortunately, they were not accompanied by spending cuts.

To solve the problem, the easiest part is fixing the federal budget process.  And make no mistake – there is nothing easy about that. But fixing that process would go a long way toward taming the part of the spending pie chart controlled by Congress.

A new Heritage study found only 10 percent of the $7.5 trillion in COVID spending actually paid for health care.  That means Congress is charging 90 percent in overhead and who knows what else.  A serious presidential candidate will offer up real solutions to that problem.  

For the candidates on the debate stage, and the one currently in the lead to get the Republican nomination, the biggest elephant in the room is who has the guts and leadership to do the unpopular things necessary to get our fiscal future back to reality.

In truth, the “discretionary budget,” the expenditures controlled annually by Congress, which includes all debt interest payments and defense spending, is less than 25 percent of overall expenditures – and shrinking.  The real driver of federal deficits is mandatory, programmatic spending.  These are the expenditures Congress doesn’t address on an annual basis.  They happen whether or not Congress acts.

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The mandatory, programmatic expenditures are popular transfer payments, including Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, student loans, and ObamaCare and countless other programs you have never heard about from Congress.  They are perpetual and don’t get voted on annually.  Any presidential candidate who dares touch that third rail of politics risks everything. There’s a reason Trump wouldn’t touch it.

In all the constituent and lobbyist meetings I’ve ever taken, I can count on one hand the number of times an ordinary constituent was there to lobby me to cut or reform these programs, and they are our country’s biggest drivers of our challenges. There is no constituency for doing the hard things that will actually solve the problem, or at least put us on a trajectory to a more sound fiscal policy.

I’ve found most people believe we can solve our debt problems by tinkering with spending they don’t like. Congressional salaries, foreign aid, or the ubiquitous “waste, fraud, and abuse”come up frequently, and they should.  But the truth is, it is the mandatory, programmatic spending that needs reform to save the very programs so many want and need.

For the candidates on the debate stage, and the one currently in the lead to get the Republican nomination, the biggest elephant in the room is who has the guts and leadership to do the unpopular things necessary to get our fiscal future back to reality.

As for the Democrats, don’t expect them to ever address responsible spending.  It isn’t in their DNA.

Jason Chaffetz is a FOX News contributor and the host of the “Jason In the House” podcast on FOX News Radio. He joined the network in 2017. Click here to read more