Debt Ceiling

                The government of the United States of America spends too much.  This fact is shown by the fact that our nation will once again hit the debt ceiling this week.  Our debt is the main reason why the United States is no longer among the ten most economically free nations.

                President Ronald Reagan understood the cause of our debt:  “The problem is not that people are taxed too little; the problem is that government spends too much.”

                Amy Payne at The Heritage Foundation published a very good post about the debt ceiling in The Foundry.  “It is timely that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) put out new numbers on America’s financial situation this week.  By the end of the week, we’ll be hitting the debt ceiling again.

                “The CBO’s report, which dropped the bombshell that Obamacare is projected to push 2.3 million people out of the workforce, is chock full of other disheartening information. 

                “For starters, `The nation’s fiscal situation is much worse today than when President Obama first took office,’ says Romina Boccia, Heritage’s Grover M. Hermann Fellow.

                “The outlook on the debt is somber.  Entitlement spending continues to grow on autopilot, and `Washington’s failure to handle the problem responsibly means a higher tax burden and a slower economy for younger generations,’ Boccia explains.

                “The debt drags down the economy…."

                Stephen Moore, chief economistat The Heritage Foundation, is also concerned about the debt of our nation:  “The Washington press corps was all atwitter yesterday with the news that the budget deficit is shrinking and the red ink will hit a seven-year low of $514 billion this year and $478 billion next year.

                “Wait.  This is progress?  Half-trillion-dollar deficits would have been unthinkable a decade ago; now they are cheered as progress.  We are living in an Obama era of diminished expectations.

                “But what hasn’t been advertised is the disgraceful longer-term outlook for our fiscal future, which took a turn for the worse.  And Obamacare is the main culprit.  In the long run, the budget deficit will be slightly more than $1.5 trillion WORSE than previously estimated.  In 2015, the deficit starts exploding again – to $912 billion in 2020, and then above $1 trillion annually from 2022 until the end of days….

                “By the way, one of the biggest ballooning expenses is interest on the debt, which rises from about $250 billion a year now to more than $800 billion in a decade….

                “Meanwhile, the debt burden gets worse, not better.  Our debt as a share of national output skyrockets from 72 percent to just shy of 80 percent of GDP within a decade.  Obamacare contributes to this thanks to the massive costs of Medicaid expansion and driving an expected 2 million people from the workforce.  The budget deal that relaxed the budget caps and sequestration also has ratcheted up spending in every future year.”

                An ad from The Heritage Foundation asked a very important question, a question that we should think about as we ponder the debt of our nation:  “If your house was flooded, would you raise the ceiling or pump out the water?”  I would pump out the water, and I believe that we need to stop raising the debt ceiling and start pumping out the water.  Since the entitlement programs are causing the debt to skyrocket, we must bring them under control.  We cannot continue to spend money that we do not have!