America in Debt
By the Editors
This article appears in the Summer 2024 issue of the Coolidge Review. Request a free copy of the print issue.
“When America ceases to remember his greatness, America will be no longer great.”
—Calvin Coolidge on Alexander Hamilton
Both the federal budget and total federal debt have reached unimaginable levels. Trillion-dollar deficits (at least) have become the rule.
Yet poll after poll shows that the debt crisis doesn’t rank high among voters’ concerns. In a February Gallup poll, only 3 percent of voters said the federal budget deficit represents the most important problem facing the country.
Nor do you hear many politicians address the sea of red ink in which the government is drowning.
America has endured painful public debt challenges from its infancy. It overcame fiscal crises thanks largely to a norm established by our nation’s first treasury secretary, Alexander Hamilton: that the United States would always work to repay its debts first—and support the value of our bonds.
This “Hamiltonian norm” endured well into the twentieth century. But Washington has abandoned it in recent decades. Hence the flurry of massive spending bills, the skyrocketing debt, and the decision of two major credit-rating agencies to downgrade the creditworthiness of U.S. debt.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
On March 7, 2024, the Coolidge Foundation assembled a distinguished lineup of lawmakers, economists, historians, and policy experts for the conference “America in Debt.”
The Summer 2024 issue of the Coolidge Review features essays adapted from the conference. The essays will also appear here on the Coolidge Review website in the coming days and weeks. You will learn how America has overcome debt challenges in the past, when and why the Hamiltonian norm broke down, and how the United States can confront its debt crisis today.
To see all the talks—including many not excerpted here—visit the Coolidge Foundation’s YouTube channel.