Higher rates spell an end to the case for putting huge programs on Uncle Sam’s credit card

CEI’s Ryan Young was cited by The Washington Examiner regarding higher interest rates.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury security, for instance, has risen from around 1.5% at the end of 2021 to 4.75%.

Ryan Young, a senior economist at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, said that a lot of those proposals, once considered politically viable for Democrats, would have a difficult time getting enough votes — even if Democrats had the trifecta of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives.

“The spendiest of the spendy policies, like the Green New Deal, a Medicare for All proposal, a lot of things that maybe DSA types are proposing, they fall flat with the rest of the party,” Young told the Washington Examiner. “And frankly, that super spendy wing of the party has been mostly confined to college campuses.”

Young said that spending plans such as these now have a fundamentally different fiscal calculation than they did in the early 2020s, when they were major talking points.

“And I don’t think your average voter is going to be attuned to this, but interest rates are a big reason why,” he said. “I was looking at the 10-year bond rates, which are creeping up to 5%. A few years ago, they were as low as 1%.”

Read the full article at The Washington Examiner.