Jamie Dimon sounded the alarm on the deficit and debt on the sidelines of the JPMorgan Tech Stars Conference in London, and Washington should pay attention. With the deficit at 7 percent of GDP and the debt soon to surpass 100 percent of GDP, the United States is facing a serious fiscal threat. Dimon calls deficits inflationary by their nature, putting the long-term stability of our economy at risk.* He's right to warn that if we don't act soon, we could be forced into crisis-mode decisionmaking, where legislators are forced to make tough choices at the worst of times. But while Dimon's call for a Simpson-Bowles-style commission to address the deficit is well-meaning, it's not enough. To tackle this problem head-on, we need something more powerful. We need a fiscal commission modeled after the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process, which has a track record of success in helping Congress to make difficult decisions by averting the blame.
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Table of Contents
- Jamie Dimon sounded the alarm on the deficit and debt on the sidelines of 1
- To tackle this problem head-on we need something more powerful. We 1
- BRAC process which has a track record of success in helping Congress 1
- The numbers donʼt liedeficits are unsustainable at these levels and 1
- Washington has a long history of kicking the can down the road and every 1
- Where I disagree with Dimon is in his call to resurrect the Simpson-Bowles 1
- Even if it had been the plan required widespread political consensus in an 2
- The failure of Simpson-Bowles wasnʼt just bad timing it was baked into the 2
- Simpson-Bowles ultimately fell victim to the very partisanship it was trying 2
- If weʼre going to get serious about fiscal reform we need a different 2
- This is where the BRAC model comes in. 2
- The BRAC process used to close obsolete military bases is widely 2
- BRAC commission consisted of independent experts not elected officials. 2
- Its recommendations were self-executing so long as the president 2
- The House Budget Committee passed the Fiscal Commission Act of 2024 2
- H.R. 5779 earlier this year with bipartisan support. While a far cry from a 2
- BRAC-like fiscal commission the proposal sets appropriate goals of 2
- The longer Washington delays the inevitable the more inflationary 2
- US economy which will hurt our nationʼs global standing in a tumultuous 2
- A BRAC-like commission offers a way out of this trap. It forces action by 2
- The time for action is now. We canʼt afford another decade of inaction 2
- Also see George Willʼs take on the need for a fiscal 2
- This post was updated to reflect that a previous statement 2
