The national debt is over 100% of GDP and most of Congress is ignoring wishes to rein it in. It’s time to amend the Constitution
· Fortune
Today, U.S. debt held by the public currently stands at a staggering $31.68 trillion, a little more than 100% of GDP. According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), if Washington continues to embrace its standard operating procedure, that figure is projected to climb to a stunning 175% of GDP over the next 30 years. These debt levels flash red. Centuries of historical evidence show that once public debt exceeds 90% of GDP, economic growth slows and major troubles follow. Before we are engulfed in a financial crisis, don’t you think it is time for Washington to defuse the debt bomb?
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One can clearly grasp the problem associated with excessive government debt by looking at the interest burden linked to America’s current debt level. In Fiscal 2025, 36.5% of individual income taxes collected were used to pay interest on the national debt. So, over a third of Americans’ individual income tax dollars were siphoned away and not used for the provision of government goods, services, and transfer payments. If that’s not bad enough, current taxpayers are shelling out a big slice of their taxes to service debt taken on in the past to finance government spending in years gone by, years in which some current taxpayers weren’t of voting age or might not have even been born yet. But this isn’t the end of the story. The CBO projects that by 2036 an estimated 50.6% of Americans’ individual income tax dollars will be devoted solely to servicing the government’s debt.
In the past, Washington has attempted to rein in deficit spending and the accumulation of debt. Indeed, Congress periodically engages in a debt ceiling charade, which wastes a lot of time and energy and limits nothing. In addition, there have been more serious attempts at statutory restraints: the Budget Enforcement Act of 1990 and its Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rule, the Budget Control Act of 2011, and, most notably, the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985. Each attempt at statutory control has failed. For example, Gramm-Rudman-Hollings, perhaps the most serious attempt to eliminate fiscal follies, promised to gradually reduce federal deficits until 1991, when a balanced budget would be achieved. However, in 1987, Congress postponed the implementation of Gramm-Rudman-Hollings for two years and, in 1990, abandoned it entirely.
With Congress proving time and again that it is incapable of exercising fiscal control, what can be done? As it turns out, the Founders provided an option. Article V of the U.S. Constitution lays out the pathway to a fiscal responsibility amendment.
By the way, back in 1979, 39 states filed active applications for a Constitutional convention that would be limited to proposing a fiscal responsibility amendment: a fact fully documented by the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation in September 2025. As of 1979, federal debt held by the public was $640 billion, only 2% of the current level. Under Article V, Congress “shall call” a convention to consider one or more amendments if two-thirds (34) of the states file applications. Congress’s obligation to call a convention under Article V is non-discretionary. Yet, not wanting to face the possibility of having its fiscal hands tied, Congress has failed to act on its express Constitutional obligation.
Facing a looming debt crisis, serious voices have called for consideration of a Constitutional amendment. For example, at an American Enterprise Institute (AEI) forum on June 3, current and former policymakers, leading economists, and fiscal reform advocates, including Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, House Budget Committee Chairman Jodey Arrington, former Senator Max Baucus of Montana, Senator Steve Daines of Montana, former Ohio Governor John Kasich, former Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, former New Hampshire Governor Christopher T. Sununu, and this column’s co-author David Walker, came together to discuss how to rein in America’s national debt once and for all.
Just what might a fiscal responsibility amendment look like? We believe an amendment that caps debt as a percent of GDP is the best path forward. The language for such an amendment might read along the following lines:
Federal debt held by the public shall not exceed 110% of gross domestic product (GDP) as reported by the Treasury Department, absent a formal Declaration of War in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution. Effective no later than the end of Fiscal 2040, federal debt held by the public shall not exceed 90% of GDP absent a formal Declaration of War in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution or due to an unexpected and temporary national emergency with a two-thirds vote by both houses of the Congress and the concurrence of the President. Any waiver votes under this amendment must occur for each fiscal year the limit would otherwise be violated. Congress shall enact legislation to operationalize these requirements within a year of ratification of this Amendment. The legislative provision must include gradual and continual reductions in federal debt held by the public as a percent of GDP between the date of enactment and Fiscal 2040 with automatic enforcement mechanisms. Any member of the Senate or House who is in office in a year that this Amendment is not fully complied with shall not be eligible for re-election.
Before our fiscal time bomb explodes, it is time to convene a limited Constitutional convention dedicated to crafting a fiscal responsibility amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Since a majority of current active state Article V applications (28) are limited to fiscal responsibility, only a limited convention can be assured. The pieces are in place. The time for action is now.
Steve Hanke is a Senior Contributing Columnist at Fortune, a professor of applied economics at The Johns Hopkins University, and a member of the Board of Directors at the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation. He is the co-editor, with Barry W. Poulson and John Merrifield, of Public Debt Sustainability: International Perspectives (Lexington Books, 2022). David M. Walker is the former Comptroller General of the United States and the Chairman of the Board of Directors at the Federal Fiscal Sustainability Foundation.
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