Former U.S. Senator Joe Manchin was back at a congressional committee, but this time on the other side.
Manchin, now an independent, was a panelist Monday before the House Budget Committee, where the online landing page notes at the very top a growing national debt of more than $40 trillion.
The panel’s topic was “America’s Fiscal Future: Examining the Need for a Fiscal Commission and went almost three hours at a field hearing in Dallas, Texas.
“I mean, we must reverse the catastrophic financial demise of our own making before it’s too late,” Manchin said.
Another panelist was Leon Panetta, the former House Budget Committee chair and director of the Office of Management and Budget under former President Bill Clinton. Later, as chief of staff, Panetta helped guide the Clinton administration toward a balanced federal budget and eventual surpluses, the last time that happened.
The third panelist was Rob Portman, a former Republican senator from Ohio and former OMB director.
They warned that rising debt threatens economic growth, borrowing costs, Social Security and Medicare solvency, infrastructure investment and national security.
The three panelists urged Congress to act rather than defer decisions, drawing on prior bipartisan deficit-reduction agreements.
Manchin provided example after example demonstrating trust in enforcement mechanisms more than deliberative bodies
In his opening remarks, Manchin noted that the Congressional Budget Act of 1974 requires a budget resolution by April 15 and all 12 appropriations bills by September 30.
“Unfortunately, it’s a timeline without any teeth,” Manchin said.
“On Sept. 30, 1996, Congress passed all 12 appropriations bill for the fiscal year of 1997. We haven’t done that in over 50 years. One time, 50 years.”
One of the ideas they kicked around was a fiscal commission, a statutory body of lawmakers and outside experts charged with producing a deficit-reduction package that Congress must vote on up-or-down.
Panetta backed a fiscal commission, but as a fallback rather than a first choice. Throughout, he said the real responsibility should lie with Congress and a commission would exist only because the politics won’t allow it.
“I think there would be nothing better than if a group of elected members on the budget committee were willing to sit down and develop a comprehensive approach to deficit reduction. That would be great, but I also understand the politics of the time,” Panetta said.
“And you know how difficult it is to try to bring members together when the politics of both sides would basically stab you in the back, and that’s a reality. But that doesn’t mean that you walk away from the problem, and that’s why a commission, in the very least, would be able to have some degree of independence and capability to address these issues and say what needs to be done.”
Manchin questioned whether candidates up for election actually bring their concerns about the debt before the public.
“How many you’re talking about the death of the nation. How many you’re campaigning on that? Is it an issue? Are using it? Talking about it? You bringing it up?” Manchin asked.
He told the House panel, “You are on the campaign trail, so you know what’s going on. You’re hearing it from your constituents. If they could see that basically this unmanaged debt that we have, this crippling debt that we all have on us, is basically a cause for inflation and basically a cause for high food prices, gasoline prices, utility prices, interest rates and everything else.
“It really is contributing to everything that they’re upset about right now that you all have to go out and defend. They’re talking about everywhere you go. Who they going to blame? It’s Republicans’ fault, Democrats’ fault. It’s everybody’s fault, and it’s more our fault if we don’t do something.”
America’s Fiscal Future: Examining the Need for a Fiscal Commission 09-21-2026 https://t.co/wCHTCkTMMt
— House Budget GOP (@HouseBudgetGOP) September 21, 2026