The national debt is now over $31 trillion. It was $21 trillion just five years ago. With the federal government going on such an obscene spending spree, is it any wonder everyone’s savings are now being destroyed by inflation?
Then consider that Social Security and Medicare are running out of money to sustain current benefits.
No, that’s not some right-wing talking point.
That’s straight from the Trustees of the Social Security and Medicare trust funds.
“The Old-Age and Survivors Insurance (OASI) Trust Fund, which pays retirement and survivors benefits, will be able to pay scheduled benefits on a timely basis until 2034, one year later than reported last year,” they reported last year. “At that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing tax income will be sufficient to pay 77 percent of scheduled benefits.”
Likewise, “The Hospital Insurance (HI) Trust Fund, or Medicare Part A, which helps pay for services such as inpatient hospital care, will be able to pay scheduled benefits until 2028, two years later than reported last year. At that time, the fund’s reserves will become depleted and continuing total program income will be sufficient to pay 90 percent of total scheduled benefits.”
House Republicans under Speaker Kevin McCarthy vow to take on excessive spending, which in the short-term is setting up a fight over the federal debt ceiling. But, notably, House Republicans are for the most part vague about what exactly they intend to push for.
There are obviously political risks and tradeoffs for members of Congress to support cuts (or tax increases) to get the national debt and ongoing deficits under control.
Democrats are traditionally more likely to work to defend or expand non-military spending, while Republicans are more likely to work to defend or expand military spending. The easy thing for Republicans and Democrats to do is to compromise by supporting increases to both military spending and non-military spending. But that’s exactly how the federal government got into this mess in the first place.
Former President Donald Trump, under whose watch the national debt exploded even before the pandemic, has called on Republicans to oppose any effort to touch entitlements. “Under no circumstances should Republicans vote to cut a single penny from Medicare or Social Security,” he said.
OK, so the entitlement programs are off the table.
In an interview with Fox News, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio. has on the one hand said military spending should be on the table, but then elaborated that what he meant is, “[M]aybe focus on getting rid of all the woke policies in our military, [so] we’d have the money we need to make sure our troops get the pay raise they deserve, we have the weapons systems and the training that needs to be done, so we’re ready to deal with our adversaries around the planet, that’s what we want to focus on,” Jordan said.
Well, getting rid of “woke policies” in the military won’t fix the budget either.
And no, appeals about cutting “waste, fraud and abuse” won’t cut it either. Everyone knows that’s just a way for politicians to sound serious without doing anything.
There are big things at stake here. It’s time Congress gets serious about getting federal spending under control and governs in a fiscally responsible manner.
No, we’re not holding our breath on that.