Ahead of President Donald Trump’s congressional address on Tuesday night, the Concord Coalition launched their new ‘fiscal responsibility’ advocacy group, Concord Action, designed to pressure Congress to tackle America’s $36 trillion debt crisis.
Former Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-GA, the new executive director and president, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital urged Trump to show he is serious about tackling America’s debt crisis.
‘I’d like to hear that he’s really serious about putting everything on the table and putting together an effort that reaches out,’ Bourdeaux said. ‘He really needs to reach across the aisle. We know that to get the budget done, just on an annual basis, it does require Democrats to be involved. This needs to be a bipartisan effort.’
Bourdeaux, a Democrat who worked with Republicans during the Great Recession to balance Georgia’s state budget, said Trump needs to lead a ‘bipartisan effort’ that goes ‘line by line’ through the nation’s spending.
‘It needs to be a thoughtful effort,’ Bourdeaux added. ‘It does need to tackle the waste, fraud and abuse, but anyone who is serious about balancing the budget knows that is not enough. We really have to go line by line through all the different programs that we do, including the mandatory spending, and look at places where we can find savings and efficiencies. And we also have to put the tax side on the table as well.’
The economy was the top issue for American voters in 2024, as four in 20 voters said inflation was the most important factor in their vote, according to 2024 Fox News Voter Analysis. Voters reported a negative view of the economy, with almost two-thirds rating the economy as not good, 40%, or downright poor, 24%.
‘I know people approach this with a sense of despair, but it can be done. Back in the 1990s, I was actually a congressional staffer at the time. We did balance the budget. We did get together. It was done on a bipartisan basis. You know, Clinton was the president, but the House was Republican, at times the Senate was Republican. They got together, and they got it done. We really need to replicate that process again,’ Bourdeaux said.
Bourdeaux said if America has balanced the budget before, then it can be done again. When former President Bill Clinton took office, the national debt was over $4 trillion, according to U.S. Treasury data. Republicans and Democrats worked across the aisle to achieve budget surpluses through legislation like the Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
Bourdeaux said she wants to hear a real plan from Trump on Tuesday night.
‘Right now, even getting to balance. Nobody has a plan. Nobody has anything serious on the table right now. We need to set up what that plan is going to be and then start executing it,’ Bourdeaux added.
Deputy White House press secretary Harrison Fields responded in a statement to Fox News Digital, ‘Since day one, President Trump has prioritized government efficiency, proper stewardship of taxpayer dollars, and the goal of signing a long overdue balanced budget. The Trump Administration is committed to ending the mindless spending of foreign wars, woke ideology, and unnecessary government programs that don’t serve the American people.’
Trump’s plan to slash federal spending is anchored in Elon Musk’s leadership of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Trump signed an executive order on Inauguration Day establishing DOGE ‘to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity.’ The Trump administration has since directed government agencies to comply with DOGE’s departmental investigations.
According to the official DOGE website, the department has estimated $105 billion in savings, attributed to contract cancelations, workforce reductions, improper payment deletions and other regulatory changes. DOGE has drawn the praise of many Republicans and the protest of several Democrats for its aggressive action to dismantle government waste.
DOGE has inspired government officials at the city, state and federal level to prioritize efficiency, from San Francisco ordering employees back to the office, to the Environmental Protection Agency locating its own $20 billion in wasteful spending.
Sens. Pete Ricketts, R-NE, and Jacky Rosen, D-NV, introduced a new bipartisan bill last week that would require the annual presidential budget to include data on improper payments to federal agencies. Rep. Dan Meuser, R-PA, announced the Payment Integrity Information Reform Act to target overpayments by the federal government on the House side as well.
A Senate DOGE Caucus was established in November 2024 by Sen. Joni Ernst, R-IA., ‘to identify and eliminate government waste’ and works closely with Musk’s DOGE to ‘promote fiscal responsibility.’ The House also established the Delivering Outstanding Government Efficiency Caucus to support DOGE through legislative action.