Smucker Hosts RSC Podcast on Tackling America’s $40 Trillion National Debt

Image September 24, 2026 Press Release WASHINGTON - Rep.  Lloyd Smucker (PA-11), Vice Chairman of the House Budget Committee, hosted the latest episode of  the Republican Study Committee’s Right to the Point podcast featuring Americans for Prosperity Senior Fellow in Fiscal Policy Kurt Couchman for a discussion on America’s $40 trillion national debt and efforts to put the nation on a more sustainable fiscal trajectory. Click here to watch the podcast . Click here to listen to the podcast . CLICK TO WATCH: Smucker: America’s debt problem is still solvable “If we look back to what happened after World War Two, it took quite some time to work out of that high debt to GDP ratio-- about 30 years. The point is: this is solvable. [The national debt] is a big problem. It's a threat, certainly to our economic well-being, even potentially a threat to the future of the country if we don't change course. But if we begin to make decisions today, we begin to make changes today. We can still solve it.” CLICK TO WATCH: Smucker on goal to cut deficits to 3% of GDP “Today, we take in roughly $5 trillion and spend $7 trillion every year. […] Our deficits are about 6% of our total economy 6% of GDP […] It is absolutely critical that we begin to reduce our deficits and move down to about half of what the deficit is today as a percent of GDP […] I think it's really important to make that statement.” # # # Issues : Budget Congress Economy & Jobs