As the national debt is a few months from reaching $39 trillion, and perhaps $40 trillion by the end of this year, it is puzzling how unperturbed the political class is. Or perhaps not. Writer and political agitator Upton Sinclair (1878-1968) said: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.”

Or pretending not to. A bipartisan congressional consensus, more alarming than partisan rancor, is: There are no long-term fiscal gains without intense short-term political pains. So, because today’s congressional careers do not yet seem likely to coincide with coming dire consequences, let them come.

In 2016, a budget expert was allotted 20 minutes to brief Donald Trump on those possible consequences. After five minutes, Trump said, “Yeah, but I’ll be gone.” He was perfectly in sync with the political mainstream he professes to supplant.

Nevertheless, the undiscourageable Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget persists. Although few others think mere information can galvanize congressional action to forestall a darkening fiscal future, the committee recently described six possible crisis scenarios. Five are dramatic. The sixth is less so, but most alarming, and most........

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