Fiscal responsibility—a leadership test we can’t ignore
By: Senator John Curtis (R-UT)
February 22, 2025
It has been said that when the sea is calm, the sun is out and the breeze is light, every boat on the water has a great captain. But when the sea is stormy, the night is dark and the wind is howling, you discover if your captain can truly navigate you safely home. America is in the midst of a raging sea of fiscal irresponsibility, and it is time for all the captains in Congress to lead.
Many elected officials love to talk about fiscal responsibility, like armchair sea captains from the safety of a cushy beach chair on the shore. I’ve had the privilege of steering a city through the fiscal torrent and into the strength of a financially secure harbor. When I served as mayor of Provo, Utah, in 2010, we faced a storm of financial reckoning. I learned raging seas won’t wait until after the next election. With nowhere to turn and nowhere to hide, tough choices had to be made.
We ultimately reduced our city government by 8% — a painful process that meant job losses, uncertainty and difficult conversations. But we made those cuts strategically, with transparency, great compassion and without compromising core services. In the end, not only did we maintain essential functions, but we also emerged as a stronger, more efficient organization with a more motivated team and grateful citizens.
Today, the stakes are exponentially higher. Our federal debt has soared past $36 trillion, a figure so large it seems almost abstract. But the consequences of this debt are not abstract. They threaten our national security, economic stability and long-term prosperity.
A perfect storm is brewing, where our spiraling debt payments will soon consume such a large portion of the federal budget that there will be little funding available for essential services like Social Security, infrastructure and national defense. At that point, the only choices will be draconian program cuts or an even more reckless expansion of the money supply. If the government continues monetizing its debt, inflation will accelerate, further eroding the value of the dollar — or worse, leaving us without buyers for our debt. Such a storm, and either choice, will undoubtedly hurt the poor and the most vulnerable Americans the most.
Clearly, kicking the can down the road is no longer an option — the raging financial sea is upon us. The simple truth is this: Either we take proactive steps to course correct by choice, or the reckoning will come to us by default — on far harsher, and less compassionate terms..
Government waste isn’t a glitch — it’s a fatal flaw that needs fixing
Government, like any large institution, accumulates inefficiencies over time. Unchecked, these inefficiencies function like barnacles on a ship’s hull — gradually slowing everything down, making movement clunky and diverting resources from where they’re truly needed. In the private sector, leaders routinely assess operations to ensure resources are deployed effectively — or face the consequences drastically. But in Washington, that same discipline is virtually nonexistent.
What President Trump is doing now — scrutinizing government spending on programs and employees through the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and looking for areas to trim — is something any responsible executive would do. As a business owner and mayor, I learned that there is a right way to deal with resulting layoffs and firings. Endings matter. Dignity matters. Compassion matters — because people matter most. We should remember that the day an employee is let go could well be the worst day of their lives.
To offboard someone with grace and compassion is mission critical to every organization. This has been largely missing from the media reports of current cuts. We also shouldn’t discount or vilify the good people who work diligently for the American people even in the face of poor leadership in bloated bureaucracies. I agree with those concerned that the DOGE approach has appeared reckless and rash, and that we should show more compassion and dignity to those affected by its mission.
Federal government jobs must align with financial realities and performance expectations rather than serve as a guaranteed employment shelter.
With these cuts, we will eventually be thankful when our nation is again in a position of strength, because well-executed budget reductions will force the government to prioritize what best serves the people.
The illusion of ‘free money’
For too long, we’ve lived under the illusion that government spending is a consequence-free exercise. We saw this play out during COVID-19 when relief funds flowed freely to individuals and businesses — many of whom needed it, but also many who did not. The federal government distributed nearly $1 trillion in direct stimulus payments during the pandemic. Sadly, most Americans lost that money — and much more — to the inflation that followed.
Sam Bankman-Fried — the now-infamous founder of FTX — portrayed himself as a genius philanthropist, generously funding causes and campaigns. But the money wasn’t his. It belonged to customers and investors who trusted him. The federal government is playing a similar game, spending money it doesn’t have under the guise of benevolence. If the FTX scandal enraged us, the federal debt crisis should terrify us.
The budget process itself is broken
Beyond excessive spending, we have another problem: a budget process that simply does not work. Since 1974, Congress has met its budget deadline four times. The system incentivizes the brinkmanship of shutdown-showdowns, endless continuing resolutions and bloated omnibus bills rushed through in the dead of night. It’s a recipe for dysfunction, disaster and even more debt. A shutdown, or threat of a shutdown, always leads to a continuing resolution (more spending) which ultimately leads to an omnibus (even more spending) and no accountability from Congress (spoiler alert: we are about to watch this play out in the coming weeks).
That’s why I will introduce the Appropriations on Demand Act. Rather than sticking to an arbitrary annual cycle that fuels last-minute chaos, this legislation would require a new budget only when clear shifts in priorities or circumstances demand it. This approach would bring stability, ensuring government functions without the constant threat of shutdowns or the reckless and expensive eleventh-hour policymaking.
Mine is not the only good idea for reform, and I welcome creative solutions from my colleagues and constituents — because this debate is far overdue.
The unspeakable needs to be spoken
No budget reform is complete without addressing the elephant in the room — or, in this case, on the boat: non-discretionary spending. It doesn’t take a budget expert to recognize that if we refuse to examine the massive portion of federal spending deemed “untouchable” — primarily Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — we’ll never achieve a balanced budget. Unaddressed, this storm alone will hurt the poor and most vulnerable the most and ultimately sink the nation.
These programs are riddled with waste, fraud and abuse, and that’s where we should start. If we can root out inefficiencies, we may find enough savings to ease the present pressure while keeping our promises to current beneficiaries. But if not, we need an honest, fact-based conversation about the cost-cutting necessary to preserve and strengthen these programs for future generations. Pretending otherwise isn’t leadership — it’s denial at best and malpractice at worst.
A simple truth my kids understand
My wife Sue and I have six children, and from an early age, we taught them a simple financial principle: before you spend money, make sure there’s enough in the bank to cover it. Somehow, this basic concept has been lost in Washington. We have managed as a country because we have an amazingly resilient ship, and we have been blessed as a nation with a lot of sunny days. But the storm is coming, and wishful thinking and political slogans aren’t going to calm the raging economic sea.
My children were also taught about the absolute predictability of consequences. You might get away without paying your bills, procrastinating your homework, telling a lie or teasing your sibling — for a time — but consequences always come in the end.
Living within our means is a pioneer principle and isn’t just about dollars and cents — it’s about consistency between what we preach and what we practice. Americans say they want fiscal responsibility, yet many still expect government benefits to flow endlessly. We can’t have it both ways. Hardworking, taxpaying families balance their budgets every day. It’s way past time the federal government did the same.
The leadership test of our time
Making tough budget decisions isn’t easy. I know that from experience. But real leadership isn’t about avoiding hard choices — it’s about making them before circumstances make the choice for you. If we fail to confront our $36 trillion debt now, we won’t just be passing the problem to the next generation — we’ll be guaranteeing them a crisis of catastrophic proportions.
As someone who has successfully navigated difficult budget cuts while preserving core services and compassionately dealing with difficult decisions, I can say with confidence: we don’t have to fear spending discipline — we must embrace it. Done right, it doesn’t weaken an organization — it makes it stronger. The same is true for our country.
It isn’t responsible for a captain to tell you everything is fine, that the ship is safe and the sea will be calm when it clearly isn’t. We need elected officials across the political spectrum to prove worthy of their stewardship and lead. The time for delay and political posturing is over. We can compassionately and courageously navigate this raging financial sea by choice today or sink in the predictable, and preventable, storm to come.