06.13.17

Enzi Tells Sec. Mnuchin To Focus on Nation’s Skyrocketing Debt and Underperforming Economy

WASHINGTON D.C. – Senator Mike Enzi (R-WY), Chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, today told U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin that it was critical for his department to focus on addressing America’s mammoth national debt and boosting economic growth, during a hearing today on the President’s fiscal year 2018 budget request.

“The Department of Treasury has responsibility for fostering our nation’s economic growth and ensuring fiscal stability across our financial system, and our country’s growing debt and underperforming economy should be front and center in those conversations,” said Chairman Enzi.  “Congress will be asked to raise the debt ceiling again this year, to cover spending that is already obligated or essentially already spent, but we must also prioritize changing the trajectory of our overspending. This Administration has proposed a budget that balances, and it has been years since the White House has even attempted to accomplish that goal.  But Congress must implement those reductions in deficit spending and economic growth policies to put our nation on a better fiscal path.”

Enzi also said that America is faced with a mammoth national debt that totals almost $20 trillion and a sluggish economy that is holding back more robust growth, which is forecasted to expand at a modest 2 percent rate.  He said over the next 30 years, debt is projected to nearly double as a percentage of our GDP, from 77 percent in 2017 to 150 percent in 2047.

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