WASHINGTON—Paul Winfree, director of the Roe Institute for Economic Policy Studies, released the following response to ongoing debt limit and budget caps negotiations:

Congress needs to use this opportunity to correct the nation’s unsustainable fiscal course. It is obvious that the long-term fiscal problem is driven by mandatory spending, especially large entitlement programs. However, Congress cannot continue along the path of growing the discretionary budget, which in many ways is more important to determining the size and scope of the federal government, while also ignoring the mandatory budget.

 

Congress should not further abdicate its constitutional responsibility over the debt by circumventing the budget caps yet again and at the same time give Treasury nearly unlimited borrowing authority.

 

The debt limit and discretionary spending merit separate, serious consideration.