On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve and Fiscal Challenge Club set up a booth on Library Lawn for students to sign a petition recognizing the national debt and advocating for a sustainable fiscal future. As a part of their “Debt Dogs” event, the club grilled hot dogs and invited students to pet a therapy dog as they signed the petition.
The Federal Reserve and Fiscal Challenge Club held their event in concurrence with the Notre Dame chapter of Up to Us, a campaign striving to engage college students by addressing the national debt. For four weeks, the club has been hosting events to raise awareness about the national debt, aiming to obtain more signatures than competing schools. The school with the most signatures receives $10,000 in funding for their competitions and other club activities.
Max Sombong, a sophomore in the club, believes it is important to inform students on the national debt because of how it contributes to how the government determines its budget.
“We spend money on paying off interest to other countries on the national debt, so for every $10 that you spend, one goes to paying off interest on the national debt. And why does that matter? Well, the thing is, the federal budget says we’re forced to pay that, which means we don’t have flexibility in our options to pay for things like defense or education,” Sombong said.
Sombong noted that, regardless of political perspective, a high national debt restricts how policymakers can allocate resources.
“It restricts flexibility in discretionary spending, and especially with political polarization right now, there’s certain parties that want certain things, and they won’t have as much leeway to give some [spending] to others,” Sombong said.
Meghan Theall, a freshman in the club, highlighted how a high national debt affects international economies in addition to U.S. spending.
“The national debt is $38 trillion and it’s really important for our economy that it doesn’t increase. Having a really high national debt actually decreases the valuation of the U.S. dollar, which is really important. The U.S. dollar is the base currency for a lot of different countries, so they actually lose faith in the dollar and it devalues our currency if our debt is really high,” Theall said.
Freshman Heather Kowalczyk had never heard of the Federal Reserve and Fiscal Challenge Club, but after learning more about the national debt, signed the petition.
“As a college student, I think it’s important that we know about the national debt because the way the government addresses the national debt is very relevant to us. Being aware of different policies or ways that they address it can affect our futures and job markets and the economy,” Kowalczyk said. “We pay taxes right to the federal government, so knowing how they use those taxes to pay for debt and how our actions with other countries can get us into more debt or help lower the debt is very important.”