Most of us spend too much from time to time. But if, over a period of many years, our spending vastly exceeded our income, we’d face a catastrophe.
Well, for every dollar that the federal government brings in, it spends about $1.40. That long-term pattern has invited disaster on a national scale.
Congress may delay tragic financial consequences in a way that individuals cannot. But it can’t dodge horrible results permanently. It is just passing the problem on to our children and grandchildren.
A basic responsibility of Congress is to impose necessary taxes and provide for necessary federal spending. But Congress long since left “necessary” behind, to spend on things never authorized by the Constitution.
The result? Annual deficits are about $1.5 trillion. Our total debt is $14.3 trillion. Interest on the debt is devouring a dangerously growing share of all that our nation produces.