The unsustainable, and still rapidly growing, U.S. federal government
debt is a classic case of ''in denial." Despite numerous congressional
committees, bipartisan commissions, and votes, we are no closer to a
solution to the debt crisis than we were more than a decade ago. In
fact, in 2018, a congressional committee was appointed to recommend
budget process reforms, but that committee could not agree on any
recommendations to submit to Congress.In this timely volume, scholars
and policymakers assess the United States' fiscal constraints and
provide new perspectives that are desperately needed in order to solve
the nation's debt crisis. Previous recommendations focused on the
outcomes of fiscal policy but perhaps we should take a step back and ask
whether the fiscal and budget process rules themselves should be
reformed. The essays in A Fiscal Cliff suggest that "unless we reform
our fiscal rules and institutions, we are not likely to solve the debt
crisis and restore sustainable fiscal policies." While the dominant
sentiment is that maybe if we ignore it, it will just go away, the debt
crisis will not just vanish. A Fiscal Cliff is a timely addition to a
critical policy discussion.
