WASHINGTON (AP) - Financial experts warn that the growing national debt could lead to another financial meltdown, and are recommending ways to prevent it.
A bipartisan committee for the National Research Council and National Academy of Public Administration has given Congress proposals to stabilize the national debt through various combinations of spending cuts and taxes. The panel targets a debt limit at 60 percent of GDP, which it believes is achievable within a decade.
It would mean slowing increases for social programs and benefits like Social Security. But Rudolph Penner, one of several former heads of the Congressional Budget Office on the committee, warns that not doing that could cause a financial crisis "that might make the last one we've just been through look rather minor by comparison."
The national debt is now more than 12 trillion dollars and growing.
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