BCT Editorial – 9/18/05

This page was last updated on September 18, 2005.

Future shock; Editorial; Beaver County Times; September 18, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject editorial.

“When it comes to the federal deficit, Americans must put their money where their mouths are.

“An Associated Press/Ipsos poll of 1,000 adults taken this summer found a sweeping majority - 70 percent - worried about the size of the federal deficit either ‘some’ or ‘a lot.’

“And well they should. About one in every six dollars that the federal government is spending - and that was before Hurricane Katrina devastated Louisiana and Mississippi - was borrowed.

“However, just don’t ask them to do anything about it.

“The Associated Press reports that only 35 percent were willing to cut government spending and deal with a drop in services to balance the budget. The revenue side fared even worse. Only 18 percent were willing to raise taxes to keep current services.

“Tellingly, only 1 percent wanted to raise taxes and cut spending, the surest way to keep deficits from piling up. (The poll had a margin of error of 3 percentage points.)”

[RWC] Apparently the author doesn’t pay attention to history. Raising taxes never reduces deficits. For proof, consider the following. The Tax Foundation reports that in 1900, taxes consumed 5.9% of our income. In 2005 that figure is 29.1%. The only sure way to cut deficits is to cut government spending.

“The nation also faces enormous hidden deficits.

“The AP reports that David Walker, the U.S. comptroller general, says the federal government’s unfunded obligations - Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the current debt and deficit, pensions, veterans health care, etc. - add up to $43 trillion.

“That breaks down to $145,000 of debt for every American.

“These deficits matter. Today’s not-so-greatest generation is robbing the future. Make no mistake. One day, the bills are going to come due, and our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren will pay the price for our financial recklessness.

“This is more than a moral issue; national security is involved, too. Our spending spree is being funded in large part by foreigners, especially the central banks of China, Japan and South Korea. If our national addiction to debt continues unabated, it won’t be too far into the future before our dealers are calling the shots.

“As this poll shows, Americans are living in a spend-spend-spend dream world that has no consequences. What they fail to understand is that it will have consequences for their children and grandchildren who will be stuck living a nightmare because of our live-for-today profligacy.

“We’re bankrupting the future, and we don’t care.”

[RWC] While I disagree with some of the predictions, consistently running deficits is wrong any way you look at it. Until we cut spending, however, we’ll never see any consistently balanced budgets.