‘The question of our time’ — Utah Republican says distrust is biggest threat to America

Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy took a step back from the news cycle this year when deciding what to put at the center of her third congressional campaign in three years.

Her message would not be curbing government overreach like it has been in the past — though she has built a track record defending Utah lands, mines and rural residents.

Nor would it be the pressing issues of wars, water and debt — though she has remained consistent that Congress needs to take a more proactive approach on all three.

It is the thing she thinks underlies all these voter concerns: a crisis of faith in the United States of America.

“My fear is that the American people are going to stop believing in the American system of government. And if that happens, none of the rest of this matters,” Maloy said.

How to restore confidence in American institutions is not just a good thought exercise, it is the central question “of our time,” Maloy told the Deseret News/KSL editorial board on Friday.

Maloy is trying to provide the answer as she runs her Republican primary race against former gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman in the new 3rd Congressional District.

The solution includes Congress members doing their constitutionally mandated job to budget, Maloy said, without giving in to incentives to tear down the other side.

A terrifying milestone

A congressional course correction on spending has never been more urgent. This month, the national debt surpassed the GDP for the first time since World War II.

This means that all of the income, investments and output of all Americans in a year, totaling $31.22 trillion, could not pay off the publicly held debt, which has hit $31.27 trillion.

The economic effects are already hitting the wallets of everyday people, said Brett Loper, the executive vice president of policy at the Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

To borrow more money, the government has to sell more Treasury bonds at higher interest rates — leading to higher rates on mortgages, credit cards and business loans.

Debt also makes inflation more likely as the government prints money to keep up with interest payments, which now eat up more of the budget than defense spending.

This is in addition to the coming insolvency of retirement programs like Social Security and Medicare — which drive the debt, making up more than one-third of the budget.

If Congress does nothing, Social Security benefits will automatically fall by 23% in 2033, impacting 71 million individuals by an average of $18,000 per retired couple.

“That’s a real call for action,” Loper said. “The challenge is it’s constantly used as a political piñata. ... The only way they’re going to address this is on a bipartisan basis.”

While some are quietly exploring consensus proposals to reduce spending and raise revenue, Loper sees “no indication either party is going to get this under control.”

Incremental plan to save the budget

But Maloy sees things differently. House Speaker Mike Johnson is committed to lead the GOP caucus toward greater budget reform, according to Maloy.

The congresswoman pointed to last year’s budget process where House Republicans passed all 12 spending bills through committees in a partial return to “regular order.”

This rare accomplishment, which has been replaced in recent years by opaque omnibus bills, was paired with Medicaid and SNAP restrictions, Maloy said.

While the federal deficit has shrunk slightly, with President Donald Trump’s tariffs bringing in new revenue, Maloy recognizes these moves are just a drop in the bucket.

“Everything’s on the table,” Maloy said, regarding long-term reforms to stabilize Social Security, like slowly raising the retirement age or lifting the cap on taxable income.

As the only Utahn on the powerful House Appropriations Committee, Maloy is in a unique position to push these discussions along — and to prioritize Utah projects.

First is making sure as much of Trump’s $1 billion budget recommendation to help the Great Salt Lake makes it into next year’s budget bills, which are already being drafted.

To convince colleagues to carve out this much money for the Beehive State, Maloy said she is making the case that this is part of long-term water stability for the entire West.

Maloy’s five bills to become law have focused on keeping public roads accessible, bringing federal courts to southern Utah and letting Utah manage more of its public lands.

Confidence at 250

Since entering Congress, Maloy has repeated that one of the most important things Congress can do to reclaim trust is retake the authority it has abdicated to the president.

A GOP-led Congress has often deferred to Trump’s executive action, opting not to legislate their own policies on tariff rates, war powers or immigration status.

Maloy said media coverage in this area has been misleading: Republicans have taken votes to give Trump more leeway to negotiate trade, military and deportation actions, she said.

But she acknowledged Congress must decide whether to authorize military force in Iran when they return from recess because Trump’s 60-day legal deadline has passed.

Besides showing more competence in their job, members of Congress can increase voter confidence by not capitalizing on polarization by demonizing the other party, Maloy said.

“It gets a lot of clicks, it gets a lot of attention, but it undermines the foundation of who we are,” Maloy said on Friday. “You can’t sink half a ship.”

Trust in government to do the right thing has fallen to 17%, while Congress has the lowest confidence of any branch of government, with just 7% of Americans having a great deal.

With this in mind, Maloy said she plans to devote her campaign to “making sure the American public sees the value in our institutions” on the country’s 250th birthday.

“That’s one of the reasons I don’t run angry campaigns,” Maloy said. “I think angry campaigns give people a short-term high, but a long-term problem.”