Even though we know our national debt is about $13.8 trillion, and even though we know our current-year U.S. budget alone is roughly $1.4 trillion in the red, we don’t seem to understand that we can’t continue to spend more than we take in from taxes every year without getting into much deeper economic trouble.
At the individual level, spending so carelessly would get most of us in hot water rather quickly.
But somehow, many of us seem to feel that if “the government” spends too much year after year, somehow it’s “OK.”
Remember “taxes”? Yes, taxes have to be paid – by someone, somehow, someday – for everything we spend. But spending beyond tax revenue is clearly out of hand.
Syndicated columnist Cal Thomas, on Monday’s editorial page, called our attention to the problem.
He wrote, “In the past two years, spending by the current Congress has increased 21.4 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.”
Think carefully about those 20 words: “In the past two years, spending by the current Congress has increased 21.4 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office.”
Did our manufacturing go up 21.4 percent in the past two years? No.
Did our farm production go up 21.4 percent? No.
Did our taxes go up 21.4 percent? No.
What did go up 21.4 percent in just two years?
Our spending.
What do you think we ought to do about that?