A massive Australian energy project is an exemplar of runaway costs. The budget of the Snowy 2.0 power dam and energy storage project has exploded from $2 billion in 2017 to $12 billion today. The project is a reminder that taxpayers should be skeptical when governments propose large and complex construction schemes.

With a 2023 deficit of $2 trillion and the Treasury needing to roll over about one‐third of publicly held debt at now much higher interest rates within one year, legislators are beginning to more seriously grapple with the fiscal and economic costs of unsustainable government debt. Among the most promising options: empowering a fiscal commission to overcome the political gridlock plaguing Congress.

The Biden administration is requesting another federal agency‐​sized supplemental. This time, it’s $56 billion in new emergency spending for natural disasters, childcare, and high‐​speed internet. With deficits in the trillions and interest rates at historic highs, Congress should stop adding fuel to the deficit fire.

A fiscal commission can resolve America’s predictable fiscal decline, but only if it has the power to act. The CRFB explains that “[h]istorically, commissions have helped policymakers to extend the life of Social Security, consolidate military bases, identify government waste, develop frameworks for tax reform, improve homeland security after 9/11, and draw attention to our unsustainable fiscal outlook.” Time is running out for Congress to merely draw attention to America’s rapidly deteriorating fiscal state. We need action and soon.

On April 10, 2023, Congress terminated the three‐year‐long COVID-19 national emergency—one of the most expensive emergency declarations ever at more than $7 trillion in spending, as reported by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget and the Heritage Foundation. Whenever such emergency declarations occur, the president is required by law to submit spending reports to Congress. With respect to the COVID-19 spending, President Biden apparently has not done so.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act’s $1.59 trillion discretionary spending cap for fiscal year 2024 has little to no bite if appropriators decide the caps shouldn’t apply by designating some spending as ‘emergency.’

There’s a way to reduce Social Security’s financial and economic burden and eliminate its unfunded obligations over the long‐​term, and it requires no benefit cuts, but merely reductions in the growth of benefits. Now we just need to find the political will.

Congress should adhere to the spending caps agreed to in the debt limit deal without phony budget gimmicks and without blowing the budget by designating regular funding as if it were for emergencies.

As Congress considers a farm bill in coming months, it should keep in mind that farm household incomes have risen greatly over the decades.