The adage “if you are in a hole, stop digging” aptly applies to the federal budget outlook. 

Left unchanged, the current federal budget is projected to see increasing debt and deficits well into the future. Prior to the adoption of the recent reconciliation bill — H.R. 1, commonly called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” — the federal budget debt held by the public was expected to grow over the next decade from $30.1 trillion (100 percent of GDP) today to more than $52.1 trillion (118 percent of GDP) by 2035. 

Post-H.R. 1, these metrics are expected to worsen. 

Federal policies enacted through the budget reconciliation process over the past many years have only dug the hole deeper. It may be time to take away the shovel.

As a former majority leader of the U.S. Senate (Frist) and a former director of the Senate Budget Committee (Hoagland), we can attest to the Senate’s rules, procedures and precedents that make it unique from the House of Representatives. We have both shepherded legislation through the intricate hurdles of reconciliation and agree the form it has taken today has strayed from its original intent.  

We’re not alone in this belief. The renowned master of Senate procedure and one of the original authors of reconciliation, Sen. Robert C. Byrd, reprimanded his own party for engaging in deficit........

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