Now that the One Big Beautiful Bill has passed, Congress has set its sights on an even more ambitious long-term project. This new project will require five to seven years of creativity, thoughtfulness and ingenuity: balancing the federal budget and beginning to pay down the national debt.
Achieving a balanced federal budget through economic growth, technological innovation, eliminating waste and inefficiency within the government and its contractors, and developing improved methods for delivering goods and services will lead to a genuine golden age of American prosperity, affordability, and security.
The American people overwhelmingly support balancing the budget. A recent Harvard-Harris Poll found that 80% of voters favor a balanced budget amendment. This support includes 83% of Republicans, 79% of Democrats, and 76% of independents.
President Donald Trump understands that balancing the budget is both historically necessary and politically popular. When Republicans last achieved four consecutive balanced budgets — an accomplishment unmatched in a century — it reshaped Washington’s political landscape and sustained a Republican House majority for the first time since 1928.
Consider these recent statements from Trump:
During his address to a joint session of Congress on March 4, Trump declared, “In the near future, I want to do what has not been done in 24 years — balance the federal budget. We’re going to balance it.”
In February, as Bloomberg Television reported, Trump pledged, “We will take rapid action to battle government spending and increased borrowing costs.”
Trump’s commitment to balancing the budget through fiscal discipline and innovation in a low-tax environment dates back well before his first presidency.
In his 2016 campaign, Trump insisted, “It can be done. It will take place, and it will go relatively quickly. If you have the right people, you can cut the numbers by two or three pennies and balance a budget quickly.”
We must remember how dramatically President Joe Biden’s spending spree increased both the national debt and the interest payments on that debt. The national debt currently stands at $36.4 trillion, nearly double the $19 trillion debt Trump targeted in 2016. At that time, Trump warned, “We can’t keep doing this. We have got to start balancing budgets.”
In fact, Trump’s concerns about deficits and debt precede his political campaigns. At CPAC events in 2013, 2014 and 2015, Trump consistently condemned high taxes and rising debt.
However, the challenge facing Trump and the Republican Congress has grown substantially due to the massive spending increases under the Biden administration. Biden’s policies significantly expanded government spending, further increasing the importance of balancing the budget and reducing debt-related interest payments.
Consider the analysis from Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Minn.):
Trump’s last pre-COVID budget (FY 2019) totaled $4.4 trillion. The COVID crisis triggered emergency expenditures designed to avert economic depression, temporarily inflating the budget to $6.5 trillion in FY 2020. While Trump intended spending to return to pre-pandemic levels, the Biden administration maintained spending at around $6.8 trillion to $7 trillion annually. This prolonged spending surge projected deficits totaling $21.8 trillion over the next decade, marking a 36% increase. Consequently, gross federal debt is expected to climb from $36.4 trillion today to at least $59.2 trillion by 2035, or roughly 135% of GDP.
Johnson also reported that over the next decade, the U.S. will pay nearly $13 trillion solely in interest — a massive burden that severely restricts funding for other vital priorities.
Imagine a business or family required to pay $13 trillion in interest alone, far more than the projected defense spending during that period. Such debt would inevitably lead to bankruptcy and poverty. The government faces a similar risk. Continued deficits push up interest rates, cripple economic growth, crush small businesses and divert capital from productive investments into servicing government debt.
Changing this trajectory is both necessary and achievable.
House Republicans already know a balanced budget is possible. In the 1990s, Republican leadership successfully delivered four consecutive balanced budgets, a feat unmatched in the previous 100 years.
A crucial first step could be voting on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. When Republicans pursued this in 1995, the House passed it by a 300 to 132 vote margin. In the Senate, the amendment fell short at 65-35, just one vote shy of passage (Senate Leader Bob Dole strategically switched to no to retain the option to revisit the vote).
At that time, House Republican leadership, including John Kasich, Dick Armey, Bill Archer, Bob Livingston, Tom Bliley, decided that despite narrowly missing formal passage, they would proceed as if the amendment had succeeded. With disciplined leadership, they balanced the budget within four years and sustained fiscal responsibility for four more years until discipline waned.
We can accomplish this again. America will greatly benefit from a government living within its means, maximizing prosperity and securing a better future for all Americans.
Newt Gingrich was the 50th speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.
