DO THE MATH:
we could still meet our core obligations:
• The federal government takes in about $200 billion in revenues each month.
• Interest on the national debt is around $30 billion.
• Social Security costs roughly $50 billion.
• Medicare and Medicaid cost about $50 billion.
• Active-duty military pay costs about $2.9 billion.
• Veterans affairs programs cost about $2.9 billion.
We can pay for ALL of the above and still have $80 to $90 Billion to spare. What we don’t have, is money for many of the rest of the programs the Federal government is not constitutionally tasked to do.
And that is the key phrase — “constitutionally tasked to do” — in discussing government finance.
In truth, most “entitlement” programs are not authorized by the Constitution and were “authorized” only by making up new meanings for simple terms.
A big chunk of government spending could be erased simply by deleting the introductory Preamble (”We The People of the United States ...”) to the Constitution. The Preamble’s generic phrase “promote the general Welfare” is now taken as blanket permission for all kinds of awful spending programs that the Framers would have NEVER allowed.
So yeah, let’s shut ‘er down and enjoy the sound of the anguished howling.