While the incentive for big-government Democrats to disregard fiscal responsibility is obvious, for Republicans it speaks to broader changes within the party that have sidelined government spending as an issue. Some Republicans are simply more energized by other fights, such as those over Big Tech censorship, immigration, Covid restrictions, and school curriculums. Others have become resigned to the idea that battles over spending are political losers. Still others actively oppose overhauling the old-age entitlements of Social Security and Medicare and embrace a more active government role in responding to economic anxieties.

Those of us who believe in addressing the long-term debt problem also have to acknowledge another obstacle. For decades, we have warned of the risks of accumulating so much debt, yet despite massive annual deficits, the nation has not faced the sort of fiscal crisis that many of us have been warning about. Of course, deficit hawks have long qualified their warnings by noting that there is no magic point at which the debt becomes unsustainable. Rather, the larger the debt grows, and the longer the federal government signals to investors that it has no plans of addressing the problem, the greater the risk there is of a fiscal crisis at some point. The fact that the problem has not yet materialized, however, has led to more skepticism about taking action. And if that’s the case, why take the political risk?

That said, one point worth emphasizing is that the experiment we are currently undertaking is unprecedented in U.S. history.