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America is accumulating debt in astounding numbers, about $2 trillion every year,  expected to reach a total of $40 trillion this year. During a recent panel discussion, state and federal experts discussed the causes and effects of this debt, possible solutions, and how to convey this challenge in a way that inspires the public to demand action from political leaders. 

The discussion was hosted by the UNH Carsey School, the Rudman Center, and the Concord Coalition, a nonpartisan organization that educates citizens on the risks and consequences of growing federal debt and unsustainable fiscal policies.  It was moderated by Rudman Center Community Engagement Director Laura Knoy. Panelists included Carolyn Bourdeaux, Executive Director of Concord Coalition; Dennis Lockhart, former president and CEO of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; and Andrew Smith,  Director of the ����ֱ�� Survey Center.   To watch a video of this event, visit .  Quotes have been edited slightly for brevity and clarity. 

Students watched the event in UNH-Durham from the UNH-Law campus. 

“If you ask people, what is the most important problem facing the United States, less than 2% say the deficit or the debt is the most important problem,” said Andrew Smith.  “That is one of the reasons for the irresponsible nature of this. Our representatives in Washington don't see a public that is upset about this and that wants to do something about it,” he said. 

“Frankly, doing something about it is going to be  painful politically for people. So that can has been kicked down the road now for decades,” Smith said.  “I fear the numbers have gotten so big that nobody can even comprehend how to deal with numbers that big, so we ignore them.” 

There is a relatively imminent consequence of this perilous fiscal position, however, said Carolyn Bourdeaux: If nothing is done, the Social Security Trust Fund will be depleted by 2032, requiring a 28% cut in benefits.   Contributing factors:  An aging population, declining birthrate, and immigration restrictions, which mean fewer people are paying into the system that supports Social Security payments. 

“We are living with this threat hanging over us and getting more and more dangerous as time goes on," she said. "And I think somehow communicating that to folks is one of the things we're working on.” 

Andrew Smith, Dennis Lockhart, Carolyn Bourdeaux, and Laura Knoy

The Concord Coalition is also working on getting lawmakers in Washington D.C. to somehow bridge partisan divides to address the debt.  

“Our challenge right now is this is not even on the radar. Both parties are just putting one thing after the next on the table – none of it paid for. We're getting ready to probably have a big defense supplemental appropriation come up.  It’s not paid for. They're not even thinking about it,”   Bourdeaux said.

Meanwhile, the President’s budget is already overdue. 

“He is saying, maybe March 30th," she said. "By April 15th, Congress is supposed to kind of lay out the plan, pass the budget resolution so that they have some of their targets. Are they going to hit that? No, they are not. Are they going to get the budget done by the end of the year? Most likely they are not.  They have not passed a budget on time since 1996.”

With this in mind, the Concord Coalition is supporting a No Budget, No Pay bill. “The idea is if they do not hit benchmarks to get the budget done on time, Congressional pay will be docked,” she said. 

In addition, the Coalition supports the Fiscal Commission Act, a bipartisan proposal to create a commission aimed at addressing the national debt. Similar commissions in recent years have not been successful. The Coalition advocates setting some clear targets – such as cutting the deficit in half, which would make it 3% of the GDP.   

As for raising revenues to help address the debt and deficit, increasing taxes has been politically fraught. 

“How do we get across that divide? Well, it has to be a bipartisan way of looking at this and looking at the issue first, rather than taxes as the issue,” said Andrew Smith. “Taxes are a solution, or a way of addressing a problem. They shouldn’t be the problem.”

Finding ways to spread an increase broadly among taxpayers can help make it more palatable, said Dennis Lockhart.  A transaction tax, for instance, levies taxes on the buying and selling of financial assets such as stocks and bonds.  “These are small numbers over a vast amount of transactions, and many people will simply not notice after a while,” he said. “That makes it politically a little bit easier to swallow.”

It seems the trend has been more towards cutting taxes, however, particularly for certain groups.   President Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” signed into law last July, permanently extended trillions of dollars of tax cuts and added new tax cuts, like no tax on overtime.  The estimated cost is more than $4 trillion over 10 years, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center. 

The current U.S. Senate race is an opportunity for Granite Staters to press candidates on the debt issue, Bourdeaux said.                                                                                   

“Whoever is elected will be addressing that Social Security shortfall within that six-year term. And so it is incumbent on all of us to start asking our members of Congress, Senators, how they are going to tackle that shortfall and how they're going to tackle the deficit overall. They need to take constructive steps in that direction.”

The Rudman Center’s fiscal responsibility programming, including this event, is made possible through a generous grant from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.