WASHINGTON — Fiscal Responsibility, a principle cherished for generations by Americans who were not currently in charge of anything, died this year in Washington after a long illness brought on by being in power. It was 237.
The death was confirmed by the Congressional Budget Office, which reported that the federal deficit for fiscal year 2026 came to about $2 trillion, roughly $218 billion more than the year before, with spending up about 6 percent and revenue up about 3 percent. Family members said Fiscal Responsibility had been “in and out of the office for decades” and had rallied briefly in January of last year before its condition worsened.
Born in 1789, Fiscal Responsibility spent most of its life in opposition. It was a fixture at town halls, on cable news, and on bumper stickers, and was best known for its signature phrase, “Who’s going to pay for this?,” which it asked, by most accounts, exclusively of the other party. Friends remember it as warm, principled, and “incredibly loud for something nobody had seen up close.”
“It was always there for us when we were out of power,” said Gordon Pell, 66, chair of the Coalition for Balanced Budgets, which voted last month to rename itself the Coalition for Balanced Budgets (Paused). “Every time we lost, there it was, waiting at the door, with a calculator. I’ll never forget what it taught me, which was to wait.”
In its final year, Fiscal Responsibility was under the care of an efficiency initiative that reported $61 billion in contract savings. In August, the Government Accountability Office found that nearly $35 billion of those savings had not been terminated or could not be corroborated. Doctors described the finding as “a setback.”
Its decline accelerated over the summer and fall. A Cabinet department was renamed, at an estimated cost of about $52 million. A Florida airport was renamed for the president in a $2.75 million state rebrand. Construction continued on a White House ballroom announced at $300 million to $400 million. Plans advanced for a 250-foot triumphal arch, which planners noted exceeds the local height limit of 130 feet. More than $12 million in public money was spent airing television ads featuring the president, including one set to a song that repeats the words “love me.” Fiscal Responsibility was reportedly shown that ad in its final days and “did not respond.”
After the Supreme Court struck down the emergency tariffs in February, roughly $115 billion to $158 billion in refunds went to the importers who had paid them. Consumers, who had been told the tariffs were paid by foreign countries, received a $2,000 rebate that has not yet arrived.
Fiscal Responsibility is survived by the national debt, which is said to be doing great; by its cousin, Waste, Fraud, and Abuse, which remains a popular campaign topic and in excellent health; and by its estranged twin, Fiscal Responsibility (When the Other Party Is in Charge), which friends say reliably makes a full recovery whenever the other party takes office.
It was preceded in death by the line-item veto, the balanced budget amendment, and the phrase “We can’t afford it,” which died in 2025 of natural causes, while standing next to a golf cart.
Services will be held in the ballroom, once it is finished. Seating is limited to donors. A eulogy will be delivered by a representative of the efficiency initiative, who will speak for 61 minutes, of which about 35 cannot be corroborated.
In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the ballroom.