Washington's Bipartisan Fiscal Folly

In my article about the December 2019 spending blowout, I underscored the simple mathematic fact of life that federal deficits were growing because even though the government's revenue was increasing by 4 percent, spending was rising by 8 percent.

Fast-forward to the present: according to the Bipartisan Policy Center's Deficit Tracker, as of this April, "[w]hile revenues have grown 6% year-over-year, cumulative spending has surged 45% above last year's pace.

Thus, in fiscal year 2020, the federal government spent $6.55 trillion while collecting $3.42 trillion in revenue.

Currently, more than half of federal spending is being financed by debt.

Apparently determined to reestablish the Democratic brand as the party of bigger government, Biden already has pushed through his $1.9 trillion "American Rescue Plan." And now he is pushing his "Infrastructure" package with an initial price tag of $2.2 trillion, although the Wall Street Journal estimates that it could ultimately cost over $4 trillion.

So tell me: How can any government afford to pay its middle-income citizens more than they pay the government? This brings to mind President Grover Cleveland's statement, "Though the people support the government, the government should not support the people." The government not only "Should not" support us, it literally cannot.

Government has no wealth but what it first takes from real people, so if most people either pay no taxes or receive payments from the government, the inevitable result is an unviable fiscal policy.

https://mises.org/wire/washingtons-bipartisan-fiscal-folly