Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

In the Red
Claremont Review of Books ^ | 05/16/22 | Jeffrey H. Anderson

Posted on 06/06/2022 11:00:45 AM PDT by PoliticallyShort

For all of the myriad cultural, technological, and moral problems we face, few things would guarantee the undoing of the founders’ experiment in self-government more surely than continuing to pile on the burden, to ourselves and our posterity, of runaway debt. Thomas Jefferson described fiscal profligacy as a precursor to inevitable misery and suffering, the first in a stampede of apocalyptic horsemen. “[T]he fore horse of this frightful team is public debt,” he wrote. “Taxation follows that, and in its train wretchedness and oppression.” This wretchedness will only be more keenly felt as interest rates rise. Too much debt puts power in the hands of our enemies and renders the average American poorer every year.

A fundamental preliminary question is whether our government taxes too little or spends too much. The answer is easy to determine. In 2021, the federal government collected more than three-and-a-half times as much money, in real dollars per capita—that is, above and beyond inflation and population growth—as it did at the start of the postwar period. But it spent nearly seven times as much. From 1947 (the first postwar fiscal year, as FY 1946 began in July of 1945) through 2021, the population of the United States rose 2.3-fold, while prices rose nearly 13-fold. Combining these two factors, the federal government could have collected and spent 29 times as much in nominal dollars in 2021 as it did in 1947 without collecting or spending any more in real (inflation-adjusted) dollars per capita. Instead, the federal government taxed more than 100 times as much in 2021 as in 1947 and spent almost 200 times as much. By any reasonable standard, our government isn’t afflicted by a shortage of tax revenues but by an almost endless appetite for spending.

(Excerpt) Read more at claremontreviewofbooks.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Government
KEYWORDS: debt; poverty; taxes

1 posted on 06/06/2022 11:00:45 AM PDT by PoliticallyShort
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: PoliticallyShort

I stopped worrying about the debt when I realized it wasn’t going to be our country much longer.

BOTH parties are importing a new electorate to subsume the USA into the New World Order.


2 posted on 06/06/2022 11:07:11 AM PDT by Lurkinanloomin ( (Natural born citizens are born here of citizen parents)(Know Islam, No Peace-No Islam, Know Peace)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PoliticallyShort

The federal government has the power to borrow money, implying it must possess the ability to repay.


3 posted on 06/06/2022 11:08:50 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PoliticallyShort

“spending”

vote buying


4 posted on 06/06/2022 11:10:04 AM PDT by Brian Griffin
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson