Federal spending this year is already more than $3 trillion. That’s ignorant. Congress is drunk on spending. 2019 is setting yet another new record for out of control spending. Guess what… Congress is once again coming up on an appropriations deal impasse. Surprise, surprise, surprise! Let the shutdown hysteria begin. We are entering the hyperbole zone…
The sky is falling…
The leftists are insisting the sky is falling. It seems an acorn hit them on the head… again. Shutdowns are not nearly as bad as they claim. The last one amounted to exactly … zero. The media wet itself about the shutdown’s impact on the economy. But, with benefit of 20/20 hindsight we know gross domestic product growth in the first quarter of the year surpassed expectations at 3.2%. An acorn alas, is just an acorn.
The crisis mongers want you to believe people rioted in the streets, but it just ain’t so. We all went about our business as usual. The economy purred on. Most of the country was unaffected. You see government doesn’t actually produce anything except tax bills, more laws and regulations. Surprise! We didn’t miss adding more of any of those things.
Protecting the future…
This upcoming press skirmish about the budget is an opportunity to protect $100 billion in spending cuts scheduled to take effect next year. Debt hawks should have no reservations about walking away from the table if it leads to spending cuts and the more the better. Anything that could alleviate our $22 trillion national debt is a good move.
Budget control isn’t just about a short-term budget deal. It’s about the future for our children and grandchildren. Our current national debt is more than $182,000 per taxpayer. That’s about the median price for a home in the United States. It is unsupportable. We are spending nearly as much on debt service as we spend on defense.
The government has a spending problem. We need to make structural changes to the budget process. Entitlements are the root of the problem. What is even worse is the more than $120 trillion in federal unfunded liabilities, which include Medicare and Social Security. That’s a train coming straight at us.
Healthcare and Social Security spending comprised half the federal budget in FY 2018. Unfunded liabilities are expected to reach $157 trillion in the next four years. The partial shutdown earlier this year proved the federal government could do with more spending cuts. Special interests from the Swamp continue to grow the deficit. We need the madness to stop.
Conclusion:
There are no implications of a government shutdown for everyday America. The economy will thrive. Washington’s dysfunction is localized hysteria. There is one lesson worth learning from the longest federal government shutdown in history: stand your ground, reject any deal that doesn’t eliminate the deficit and start reducing the debt.