USA IOU. Brother, Can You Spare a Trillion?
WASHINGTON -- Fiscal restraint is dead. The federal government spends $1.5 trillion more than it takes in. The national debt is $34.5 trillion.
That's more than $100,000 in debt for every man, woman and child in America.
No worries. On Monday, President Joe Biden released a $7.3 trillion budget for fiscal year 2025 that would increase taxes, increase spending -- and increase the national debt.
Team Biden framed its 2025 package, with its 10-year $5 trillion hike in taxes on corporations and the affluent, as "progress" that fulfills the president's commitment to "fiscal responsibility."
Call it: Tax and Spend More -- and Still Borrow More.
No one expects the Biden spending plan to become law as is. But the POTUS plan makes it clear that Washington is not going to rein in runaway spending.
Republicans have shown as little interest in cutting spending as Democrats.
Both of the parties' presidential nominees apparently believe the candidate who talks honestly about taxing and spending can't win. So, unless a third-party candidate comes forward to remind Americans of the inevitable fiscal pain that awaits, there will be no pressure to reform.
On Monday, former President Donald Trump flirted with the notion of cutting Medicare and Social Security. He told CNBC, "There is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements, in terms of cutting" and going after bad mismanagement.
What looked like a moment of actual fiscal responsibility was followed by a hasty retreat. Trump promptly told Breitbart, "There's so much cutting and so much waste in so many other areas, but I'll never do anything to hurt Social Security." Trump also said he would not hurt Medicare.
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