Abby McCloskey, Dallas Morning News, February 19, 2024

I recently hosted a Senate reception for a bipartisan group on family policy that I’ve led the last year. At the top of the event, Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., gave brief remarks about their new bipartisan, bicameral working group on paid family leave. Their collaboration is a rare glimmer of hope for reform that would benefit American families. But it was another topic that got my attention.

In his remarks, Cassidy turned to his left and raised his arm, saying there’s this huge need over here, referring to the need of American families with young children. Then he turned to his right and lifted his arm, and said, “but did I mention, there’s this huge fiscal thing over here?”

I gave an imperceptible head nod. But in my mind, I stood up in the front row and applauded while colorful balloons dropped from the ceiling of the Russell Senate Office Building.

We need more policymakers talking like this. Being real about the tradeoffs and our problems. “Giving the honest deal,” as my former colleague and legendary campaign strategist Steve Schmidt would say during the 2020 Howard Schultz exploratory presidential campaign we worked on together.

Politicians everywhere have ideas for A New Deal, which mostly involves increasing spending or cutting off revenue. President Joe Biden tried to spend more than $2 trillion with his Build Back Better better plan. President Donald Trump went on a $1 trillion to $2 trillion (depending on what estimate you use) revenue reducing exercise with the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.

Few have been willing to acknowledge the tradeoffs that America is facing with a historic level of debt. This requires caution both on the spending and revenue sides. Our economy’s impressive soft landing in 2024 coming out of inflation is as comparable to the challenge ahead as a moon landing.