George Will

Navigating the Crossroads: Insightful Analysis on the 2024 Election

Historians will be mystified by the 2024 election. It occurred while the nation was sleepwalking deep into the most predictable domestic crisis in its history. And the crisis went unmentioned—other than when both candidates promised to do nothing to avert it. The crisis is bipartisan fiscal incontinence. We have been adding to the national debt in trillion-dollar tranches, several times a year. Everyone knows the problem: We have an aging population, with 10,000 of the 77 million baby boomers retiring in the entitlement system—Social Security and Medicare—every day. And everyone seems determined to ignore it. Both candidates promised, and both parties promise, not to touch entitlements. So, there is an urgent need for rapid economic growth—more rapid than current policies permit—to generate revenues to pay for entitlement promises. But economic dynamism is threatened by misguided “industrial policies” (protectionism, etc.). By immigration policies that impede replenishing the nation’s shrinking work force. And by populism that regards dynamism as a threat that enriches a minority and burdens the majority. Because of risk-averse politics, entitlements cannot be touched. Defense spending needs to be substantially increased in this moment. It is the most dangerous moment since 1945, and feels like 1938. And debt service payments, which now exceed defense expenditures, are not optional. The coming 2025 debate about the expiring provisions of the 2017 tax legislation will be fascinating, and momentous. As will be the national recoil—in industry and academia—from the cultural aggressions of “woke” factions. 

So, buckle up: There is going to be turbulence.