BATON ROUGE, La. (Nov. 19, 2024) — There are four days left in the special tax overhaul session organized by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry. While the tax session ensues, Louisiana State Treasurer John Fleming, M.D., joined 37 state financial officers in sending a letter to each member of Congress imploring them to develop and implement a long-term plan to remedy the nation’s severe financial problems.
They are leading an effort to sound the alarm on the severity of the crisis and offer support to Congress in the difficult decisions ahead.
In the letter, the financial leaders call for immediate action to address the growing national debt and unsustainable federal spending. The letter highlights statistics, including a $1.8 trillion budget deficit in FY2023, with the government spending $6.3 trillion while only collecting $4.5 trillion in revenue.
Referencing an infographic from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, financial leaders from states such as Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona and Georgia state that the cost of servicing the national debt has increased by 30% in FY2024 over FY2023, surpassing $1 trillion which amounts to more than the cost of Medicare (assessed as $839 billion) and military spending (assessed as $820 billion). With the national debt now exceeding $36 trillion and growing by nearly $2 trillion annually, the letter urges Congress to adopt a long-term plan to restore fiscal responsibility and safeguard America’s financial future.
The letter states: “Coupled with higher interest rates, the nearly 50% increase since 2019 in federal spending, that has continued well beyond the public health emergency, has drastically accelerated the deterioration of our nation’s fiscal position. This is a crisis many decades in the making, with responsibility shared by both parties. Solving it will be a generational challenge. Not solving the problem presents high risk that our creditors will question America’s financial stability, the dollar will be replaced as the reserve currency, and we will lose our nation’s status as the global leader. To prevent this looming day of reckoning, which could easily occur within our and our children’s lifetimes, requires a commitment to begin addressing this situation ‘Day One.’”
In support of this effort, Treasurer Fleming offered the following reflection on Louisiana’s own financial practices, stating, “Unlike the federal government, which has not had a balanced budget since 2001, the State of Louisiana must balance its budget every year. In the special session, legislators are considering a range of tax proposals to make Louisiana more competitive with other states and attract more residents and businesses to our state. I wish legislators and the Governor the best as they tackle these vital issues.”
Fleming’s comments highlight a crucial distinction between what some legislators perceive as the federal government’s unchecked spending and Louisiana’s requirement to balance its budget annually—a fiscal responsibility that the state has continued to uphold, even as some say the nation faces an unprecedented debt crisis.
Fox News shared the letter penned by Republican majority financial officers throughout the United States on their website.
