I sometimes disagree with the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget because they mistakenly focus on reducing deficits and debt, which makes them very vulnerable to supporting counterproductive tax increases (such as Biden’s misnamed Inflation Reduction Act).
But they generally provide useful analysis, so I regularly read CRFB publications.
And when they put together online quizzes (whether well designed or poorly designed), I can’t resist seeing my score.
Which is why I just filled out their online test to see if I could “Fix the National Debt.”
They start with projections of what debt will be in 2033 and 2050 if we leave fiscal policy on autopilot.
If you take the test, you get all sorts of options to increase spending, reduce spending, raise taxes, and/or cut taxes.
When I finished, here are the projections for debt levels in those two years.
The test did not require much time, so that’s good.
But there are three pieces of bad news.
- There were not nearly enough options to restrain and/or cut spending and zero options for shutting down departments (such as Education, Energy, HUD, Agriculture, and Transportation).
- There was no data on what happens to the burden of government spending as a share of GDP, which is a more important indicator of good policy than what happens to debt as a share of GDP).
- You don’t even get to see whether the budget is balanced or in surplus by 2033 or 2050, which is not that important but nonetheless would be interesting to see (here’s how it can happen).
That being said, the test was fun to take and I recommend others give it a try. Feel free to list your results in the comments.
P.S. Here are the shortest and longest quizzes that I’ve shared.
P.P.S. Here’s the Washington Post‘s budget quiz for those who want to focus on fiscal policy.
