Most of us personally enjoy spending for things we want. But if we do too much spending, when the bills come in we are not very comfortable. And we will get into serious trouble if we persist in that bad habit.
Many of our government officials like to spend, too. On city, county and state levels, taxpayers may impose some restraint. Unfortunately, however, on the federal government level, where the problem is greatest, there obviously is too little restraint.
Some officials tell us they are “giving us something” when they spend for this or that. What they are “giving” us is more debt — an obligation for higher taxes on us someday. But they seem to keep getting away with it.
That’s why we have a national debt of more than $14 trillion, on which we had to pay taxes to cover an interest expense of hundreds of billions of dollars just last year! And with U.S. spending running about $1.5 trillion in the red each year, we are getting into even deeper trouble.
Part of the difficulty is that the federal government is doing too many expensive things, some of which are actually unconstitutional. There are some things our Constitution lists that we must do. But it is politically unpopular for members of Congress to insist on cuts in optional spending.