New Plans from Seven Leading Think Tanks Solve the National Debt

Contact: Jeremy Rosen
jrosen@pgpf.org

With Critical 2025 Fiscal Deadlines Approaching, Peterson Foundation’s Solutions Initiative Provides Playbook for Lawmakers to Act

More than 200 Policy Recommendations to Stabilize the Budget, Save Social Security from Automatic Cuts, Lower Interest Costs, Reform the Tax Code and More

NEW YORK (July 23, 2024) — Seven leading think tanks have released more than 200 policy recommendations to stabilize the national debt and navigate critical upcoming fiscal deadlines as part of the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s Solutions Initiative 2024: Charting a Brighter Future.

The participating organizations, which span the political and ideological spectrum, include: American Action Forum; American Enterprise Institute; Bipartisan Policy Center; Center for American Progress; Economic Policy Institute; Manhattan Institute; and Progressive Policy Institute.

Each group put forward a detailed, comprehensive plan, addressing both spending and revenue. Each plan would reduce America’s debt-to-GDP ratio by at least one-third over the long term, and lower 30-year interest costs by at least $13 trillion. Additionally, the organizations propose action-ready ideas for lawmakers to confront a series of highly consequential fiscal deadlines and decision points approaching in 2025, including recommendations to:

• Address the January 2025 debt ceiling deadline.
• Reform the U.S. tax code responsibly — all seven plans offset any extensions of the TCJA’s expiring provisions in 2025 in order to remain at least revenue neutral over the long term.
• Prevent a 21% automatic cut to Social Security retirement benefits that is just nine years away — all seven groups extend Social Security’s solvency by at least 30 years.
• Prevent an 11% automatic cut to providers due to the current projected depletion of Medicare’s Hospital Insurance Trust Fund in approximately a decade.
• Fund investments in various areas, such as infrastructure, education and climate.
• Address the 2025 expiration of expanded Affordable Care Act subsidies.

“The Solutions Initiative 2024 shows that there is widespread agreement that America’s fiscal challenges are both unsustainable and solvable, and we have many good options to chart a brighter future for our country,” said Michael A. Peterson, CEO of the Peterson Foundation. “As Election Day approaches and we face a series of critical fiscal deadlines in 2025, these seven comprehensive plans all put our debt on a sustainable path, offering a deep playbook of policy options to help voters and elected leaders prioritize solutions. The Solutions Initiative shows that strengthening America’s fiscal and economic future is entirely within our control — all we need is leadership.”

Solutions Initiative 2024 comes at a time when America’s fiscal outlook is rapidly worsening. Debt held by the public at the end of fiscal year 2023 was 97% of gross domestic product (GDP), and the Congressional Budget Office projects that in three years, that ratio will exceed the previous record high of 106% of GDP. By 2054, the debt would rise to 166% of GDP if current laws remain the same. That level of debt would represent uncharted territory for the United States, far exceeding the 50-year historical average of 47% of GDP. Each Solutions Initiative plan would significantly reduce and stabilize our debt trajectory:

As part of the Solutions Initiative 2024 project, each participating organization drafted a memo to candidates and policymakers, identifying its top three priorities. Those memos can be found here; the top three recommendations for each organization are:

• American Action Forum
  • Entitlement Reform
  • Addressing Global Threats
  • Tax Reform
• American Enterprise Institute
  • Make Healthcare Programs More Efficient
  • Better Target Social Security
  • Reform the Tax System
• Bipartisan Policy Center
  • Pay for TCJA Extension
  • Broad Based Tax Reform
  • Strengthen Social Security
• Center for American Progress
  • Increase Nondefense Discretionary Spending
  • Invest in People
  • Ask the Wealthy and Large Corporations to Pay Their Fair Share
• Economic Policy Institute
  • Address Provisions of the TCJA
  • Strengthen Social Security Trust Funds
  • Reduce Healthcare Costs
• Manhattan Institute
  • Reform Social Security
  • Rethink Healthcare Entitlements
  • Raise Revenues Responsibly
• Progressive Policy Institute
  • Replace TCJA with Real Pro-Growth Tax Reform
  • Revitalize Public Investment
  • Modernize Retirement and Health Programs

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