Such a joke. Republicans don't even pretend to be conservative anymore. Just less reckless. Even that is a lie though. They just spend different.

What's even the next rhetorical pivot after stabilizing the debt increases is abandoned?

Undisciplined

Nobody has any interest in restraining spending. The fight is over who gets to spend on what they want. Fiscal restraint is a fallacy that sounds good on the campaign trail, and that's about the only place that it exists...

winteryeti

Is targeting three percent of GDP a turning point, or another empty promise?

Washington has a habit of changing its budget goals — not because the country solved the spending-driven debt problem, but because each goal proved harder than lawmakers were willing to confront.

 in 2011, when lawmakers still talked about balancing the budget. It was an intuitive target. If the government only spent what it collected in revenues, the debt problem would eventually disappear.

Simple in theory. Difficult to achieve in practice.

So the focus shifted to stabilizing the debt. When debt began approaching 100 percent of GDP in 2020 — as spending kept climbing and interest costs began growing steeply — balancing the budget looked increasingly unattainable.

Republicans kept up appearances for a while longer, 

 in their budget plans to make up for a lack of fiscal restraint. If you can’t balance the budget honestly, maybe you can fake it? At least they tried to make the numbers work, albeit by invoking fiscal fantasies.

Politics_And_Law

econ

> **Is targeting three percent of GDP a turning point, or another empty promise?**
>
> Washington has a habit of changing its budget goals — not because the country solved the spending-driven debt problem, but because each goal proved harder than lawmakers were willing to confront.
>
> I remember [working on fiscal policy](https://www.cato.org/briefing-paper/how-better-budget-control-act-would-limit-spending-control-debt) in 2011, when lawmakers still talked about balancing the budget. It was an intuitive target. If the government only spent what it collected in revenues, the debt problem would eventually disappear.
>
> Simple in theory. Difficult to achieve in practice.
>
> So the focus shifted to stabilizing the debt. When debt began approaching 100 percent of GDP in 2020 — as spending kept climbing and interest costs began growing steeply — balancing the budget looked increasingly unattainable.
>
>
> ![](https://thedailyeconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/us-debt-will-exceed-the-wwii-record-high-106-percent-of-gdp-in-2030-1-1024x764.png)
>
>
>
> Republicans kept up appearances for a while longer, [inflating economic growth expectations](https://www.wsj.com/politics/policy/tax-plan-budget-national-debt-analysis-e9822072?) in their budget plans to make up for a lack of fiscal restraint. If you can’t balance the budget honestly, maybe you can fake it? At least they tried to make the numbers work, albeit by invoking fiscal fantasies.
>
>
> ![](https://thedailyeconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/federal-spending-and-revenues-projected-to-outpace-historical-averages-1024x764.png)
>
>
>
>
> ![](https://thedailyeconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/04/social-security-medicare-medicaid-and-interest-consume-100-of-federal-revenue-by-2036-1024x701.png)
>
>
>
> [**...read more at thedailyeconomy.org**](https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/congress-is-moving-the-goalposts-on-fiscal-responsibility/)