Runaway Spending = Runaway Debt

IBD Editorials ^ | June 26, 2009

[Kaslin]

Budget: The U.S. is on the fiscal road to ruin — with massive spending expected to create soaring deficits and mountains of debt. Don't take our word for it. Just listen to the nonpartisan think tank that advises Congress.

---

"Under current law," said the Congressional Budget Office in its long-term budget outlook, released late last week, "the federal budget is on an unsustainable path — meaning that federal debt will continue to grow much faster than the economy over the long run."

The CBO goes on to describe our rather bleak choices: "Keeping deficits and debt from reaching levels that would cause substantial harm to the economy would require increasing revenues significantly as a percentage of GDP, decreasing projected spending sharply, or some combination of the two."

In other words, ready or not, we're going to have to raise taxes or slash spending or a bit of both. The status quo is dead.

This shocking report usually would create a firestorm of debate. But with Congress and the White House already deeply involved in crafting new ways to bankrupt America — through cap and trade, nationalized health insurance and new across-the-board regulations on the financial industry, to name but a few — what's shocking is how little attention is being paid to the future.

Without question, this Democratic-led Congress and White House have been the most fiscally reckless and irresponsible in our history. These captains of the Titanic know the iceberg looms in the murky distance, but instead of taking evasive action, they're screaming "full steam ahead" as the ship readies for impact.

It won't take long for us to hit the ice.

[Kaslin]

Ping

[Kaslin]

IBD Editorials

Please freep mail me if you want to be on my IBD Editorials ping list

[K-oneTexas]

Like the Titanic, it is an iceberg.

The part above the water is the lies, obfuscation and smoke & mirrors of the President and his staff and Congressional lackeys.

Below the water is the socialist communist agenda that we will not know about or see ... till it is too late.

[KansasGirl]

[require increasing revenues significantly as a percentage of GDP]

Raising taxes will not accomplish that (as the author suggests).

[Vince Ferrer]

Please China, stop buying our T-bills. It will be more effective than any tea party.

[Canedawg]

Good analogy.

[justa-hairyape]

In the future the Free States of America can always turn DC into an amusement park. Scarring little kiddies is about all it can do nowadays anyway.

[blam]

I heard an analyst say the other day that if the economy is the Titanic, we haven’t hit the iceberg yet. (The worst is yet to come, according to him)

[Kaslin]

I don’t doubt it one bit.

[blam]

"We keep hearing Congress has no choice — this is what people really want. Is it? A recent Rasmussen Poll asked Americans: "Would you prefer a more active government with more services and higher taxes, or a smaller government with fewer and lower taxes?"

"Some 66% responded they would prefer smaller government with less taxes; only 25% went for the big government option."

"In short, the U.S. economy is being socialized through the back door against the will of its people. Our debts will soon be so large and burdensome that we will in effect be working most of our lives for the government in order to pay them off. And we won't have any choice: a debt is a debt."

[Pining_4_TX]

Did they mention the other option? Print money like mad until it isn’t worth anything.