What is government more willing to do
Based on current evidence, the answer is pretty clear — and not encouraging.
What the government is actually doing
The revealed preference of politicians across both parties is to kick the can down the road. Here's what they've shown they're willing to do:
1. Borrow more — the path of least resistance The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) passed in 2025 added $5.9 trillion in costs against only $2.5 trillion in offsets — net new debt of $4.1 trillion over a decade, the largest single piece of debt-adding legislation in recent history. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
2. Use tariffs as a political cover for revenue Tariffs bring in $300–$400 billion a year — politically easier to sell than tax hikes since they're framed as punishing foreign countries, not taxing Americans. But they cover only a fraction of the interest bill. Fortune
3. Token spending cuts, not structural ones OBBBA included only $1.4 trillion in spending cuts against $4.5 trillion in tax cuts — meaning the cuts were less than a third of the new costs, and didn't touch the big drivers: Social Security, Medicare, or defense. Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget
What they're NOT willing to do
- Raise income or corporate taxes — politically toxic for Republicans
- Cut Social Security or Medicare — political suicide for either party, and Social Security's trust fund is headed for a 24% automatic benefit cut by 2032 if nothing is done
- Cut defense — especially with the Iran war ongoing
The honest bottom line
To simply stabilize debt at today's level through 2056 would require permanent spending cuts or tax increases equal to $707 billion annually starting in 2027 — about 27% of all current income tax revenues. No serious proposal anywhere near that scale is being debated in Congress. Brookings
The government is overwhelmingly choosing option 4 from our earlier list — inflate it away gradually — not explicitly as policy, but as the default outcome of inaction. It's the path that requires the least political courage and spreads the pain invisibly across all dollar holders rather than visibly on any one group of voters.