![]() That is on top of $3 trillion in deficit spending in both 20 due to measures enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget deficit this fiscal year is projected to be an eye-popping $1.4 trillion. Sadly, today the deficit is more than four times larger than it was then. Record budget deficits at the time is what brought us together 30 years ago. We know it will not be easy-but it can be done because it has been done before. The lesson from our experience is this: it is critical that members from both parties work together to find solutions that will get the nation's unsustainable fiscal problems under control. President Bill Clinton responded with a deficit-reducing plan of his own, and later in the decade one of us-no longer a ranking member but chair of the House Budget Committee-helped forge a bipartisan agreement to balance the budget. Our bipartisan work accelerated the conversation around deficit reduction. But not only was it what we were sent to Washington to do, it was also the right thing to do. Going against our party leadership and crafting a bipartisan compromise was considered unthinkable at the time. While our plan fell four votes short of passing, it was able to garner notable support from both parties of Congress. ![]() The Penny-Kasich plan made tough choices about capping defense and nondefense spending while also proposing savings in Medicare-which was just as much of a political third rail in 1993 as it is now. ![]() Our plan, the Penny-Kasich Deficit Reduction Amendment, proposed bold steps to rein in federal spending. We came together back then, as a Democrat and a Republican, to set partisanship aside and put everything on the table. But those fiscal challenges look like mere puddles when compared to today's ocean of deficits and debt. At the time, we were alarmed by a $310 billion budget deficit and a national debt that was just over half the size of the entire economy. ![]() Thirty years ago, one of us was the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee, the other chaired the Democratic Budget Group, a coalition of fiscally conservative legislators. ![]()
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