Overspending is not a Right or Left issue, it’s a Washington one.
As Congress debated the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act back in 2017, many “experts” warned federal revenue would drop massively and expand the deficit. Some even warned of an “economic Armageddon” if American workers and businesses got to keep a little bit more of their hard-earned money.
As far as federal revenue is concerned, they were dead wrong. Federal tax revenue increased as businesses grew, hired more Americans than ever before, and people re-invested in their employees, their businesses and our economy. Even the most cynical “experts” were forced to admit tax revenue at least remained flat.
But they weren’t entirely wrong: The tax cuts did not slow down the growth of deficit spending and our national debt. Over the last five years, we’ve seen the deficit skyrocket from roughly $500 billion to over $1 trillion before the pandemic. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, the deficit has blown past $3 trillion two years in a row. Now, our national debt is over $28 trillion. This amounts to over $85,000 per American.
How did this happen? Well, you don’t need a master’s degree in economics — or even a calculator — to get the answer: Washington doesn’t have a revenue problem. Washington has a spending problem.
No matter how much money Washington takes from us, it will never be enough to pay for the endless stream of wasteful and fraudulent schemes politicians hatch. No party — Republican or Democrat — is innocent in this. No Washington politician will ever come out in favor of wasting taxpayer dollars, but most of them jump at the opportunity to attack wasteful spending supported by their opponents. But politicians from both sides of the aisle have their wasteful “sacred cows” which they’ll always protect.
No matter how passionately or successfully these politicians might work to cut back on this waste when their party is in the minority, many of them clam up the instant they’re back in power. Even when politicians do seriously talk about “spending cuts,” they aren’t actually talking about spending less. What they’re talking about is just increasing the budget for their favorite wasteful programs slightly less than they did last year.
When hard-working Americans or private businesses spend more than they take in, they have to cut back and only spend what they absolutely must. They can’t just make up the difference by taking money from others. Washington politicians, “experts,” and media, meanwhile, endlessly blame deficits and the national debt on Americans for not paying their “fair share.”
Only in Washington is taking more money from others by force a realistic solution for bad money management. In fact, if a business did this, their executives would be in jail.
No matter what anyone else might say, we simply can’t tax our way out of this endless cycle of debt and deficits. We must start honestly looking at what we’re spending and accept this simple fact: not every penny of our tax dollars is spent wisely, and our country won’t end if we stop wasting them.
Some Members of Congress took this idea quite literally and introduced the “Penny Plan” to balance the budget over time and finally start paying down the debt. The idea was simple: For every dollar Congress allocated to each federal department or agency in the previous year, it would allocate one penny less. So, if the Department of Education got $100 from Congress last year, it would get $99.99 this year, and repeat the process the year after. This would balance the budget gradually without pulling the rug out from anyone, while forcing federal agencies to find and eliminate waste.
Anyone who argues Washington doesn’t waste a single penny of every dollar they take from us is likely a politician who desperately wants to keep your penny.