Is the National Debt Just Too Goddamn Big for Libertarian Solutions?

My Reason colleague

Peter Suderman

and I sat down for a quick (17-minute) conversation about how to reduce the national debt without raising taxes. This is part of a series of shorter, bonus mini-episodes of the Reason Roundtable podcast.

For my part, I’m in favor of an immediate freeze on federal spending (which continues to grow year over year at an alarming rate) and then ratcheting things back to pre-COVID levels. It’s insane that we’re spending like it’s 2021 rather than 2019, but there we are.

Here’s the official writeup of the conversation:

Is it possible to tackle America’s ballooning debt without raising taxes? In this episode of Table for Two, Peter Suderman and Nick Gillespie take on a viewer question about the hard math behind spending cuts, debt reduction, and fiscal responsibility. They break down the political incentives that fuel runaway budgets, explain how entitlement programs became a ticking time bomb, and suggest what a non-magical path to fiscal sanity might actually look like. Send your questions to podcasts@reason.com for a chance to be featured in a future bonus segment.

Watch above or at YouTube:

And don’t forget the Reason Roundtable is happening live in NYC tonight, at 6.20pm ET! The show is sold out but you can watch the livestream of it by clicking below (click through and set a reminder):

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