Returning to a balanced budget is feasible if the United States would return to pre-COVID-19-era spending levels, said Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., a member of the Senate Budget Committee.
He cited spending levels under President Bill Clinton and has said the rate of increase should be based on population and the rate of inflation, barring a national emergency.
Johnson’s plan uses President Joe Biden’s 2025 amounts for spending on Social Security and Medicare, since there is no appetite in either party to tackle entitlement spending. The plan uses fiscal year 1998 as a base, which is the first time the United States had a balanced budget since 1969. In 1998, the $1.7 trillion of spending would be about $5.5 trillion when factoring both inflation and population growth, while leaving Social Security and Medicare alone.
That takes the fiscal year 2025 budget…
