We've written about this less-than-sexy topic on a regular basis, under administrations of both parties, because it matters. We live in an era of bipartisan nonchalance about ballooning deficits and unsustainable national debt, but the math is the math, no matter what politicians do or say. Some Republicans are actually concerned about fiscal discipline. Others talk a decent game. Democrats simply don't care, which is actually understating their recklessness. They're committed to exploding the problem to new heights, and would gladly do so if they had just a few more votes in Congress. They mouth platitudes about "deficit control" and "inflation reduction" when they believe such words might help with with public relations, but they don't mean a word of it. The only time they really feign passion about curbing deficits is when it doubles as an opportunity to oppose tax cuts, which allow people to keep more of the money they earn.
Given the record and the math, what's especially galling is when a figure like President Biden tries to claim credit for fiscal restraint. He did so a few weeks ago with this total lie:
BIDEN: "I'm the first one to cut the federal debt by $1,700,000,000,000!" pic.twitter.com/Rm0Y9MuWjD
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 15, 2023
Completely, utterly false. As I wrote at the time, "the US has run enormous annual deficits under Biden, and the national debt has marched ever higher. The day Biden was sworn in, the federal debt stood at $27.7 trillion. That number is now approaching $33 trillion." I added, "what he's trying to say, and butchering it, is that deficits came down a bit on his watch, but that's only because COVID emergency spending expired. It has nothing to do with him." Biden didn't bring down the debt by a penny, let alone $1.7 trillion; he's increased it enormously. The supposed deficit reduction he's "achieved" is a result of one-time emergency pandemic spending automatically sunsetting. And here's what's happening to our annual deficit anyway:
The federal budget deficit was $1.5 trillion in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2023, CBO estimates—$0.6 trillion more than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year. https://t.co/mpgNLEpkOu
— U.S. CBO (@USCBO) September 11, 2023
Those are the latest numbers out of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. Axios also recently covered the historically stunning deficits:
The federal deficit is expected to nearly double this year, from about $1 trillion last year to $2 trillion for the fiscal year ending Sept. 30 There's no precedent for deficits this large, as a share of the economy — outside war, deep recession or pandemic. The WashPost's Jeff Stein reported Sunday on the stunning projected figure from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Such huge spending imbalances contribute to high interest rates for consumers — including mortgages — in the short run. In the long run, it means interest costs will likely squeeze all other federal priorities.
The deficit was higher in 2021, in the teeth of the pandemic, but that's over. We're not at war. As the story says, "there's no precedent for deficits this large" under these conditions. The inevitable retort from innumeracy-addled leftists is that the Trump tax cuts are the culprit, or the Pentagon spends too much, or millionaires and billionaires don't pay their "fair share." We've heard it all before. These are all debunked excuses. The 2017 tax reforms boosted the economy and increased tax receipts. Even if you pretend they didn't help the economy, and that erasing them entirely wouldn't have any negative impact, the total dollar amount in question is a tiny drop in the bucket of the larger problem. The US does spend substantially on defense (a form of spending actually charged in our founding documents), but those dollars are totally swamped by entitlement spending, which 'progressives' refuse to reform, and actually want to expand.
And 'the rich' very disproportionately contribute to the tax burden in this country, more so than in other developed countries. Confiscating even more of their money, or all of it, wouldn't cover the gaping shortfalls DC has created. Even functional Democratic SuperPAC Politifact admits this. Sweeping all of this details aside, we do not have a revenue-side problem. We have an over-spending problem:
2022 income tax revenues surpassed 10% of GDP for the first time in American history - even higher than the taxes that brought the late 1970s tax revolts and 1981 Reagan tax cuts. pic.twitter.com/LYayqbbDJp
— Brian Riedl 🧀 🇺🇦 (@Brian_Riedl) September 12, 2023
Revenues are at or near record highs in modern American history, yet deficits are unsustainably enormous because the government is spending far, far too much. That's the reality, no matter what the spin du jour might be.