An opinion piece in Forbes by Brian S. Wesbury and Robert Stein asks an important question: when is government spending necessary, and when is it not?
The two write: “Up to a point, some government spending is good. Defending the nation and the rule of law, and helping create some national efficiencies are positive additions to growth.”
They’re right: there are some things the federal government, and surely the state governments, must provide.
But the two caution, “[T]he U.S. is past that point.”
We’d say we’re way past that point. Our current spending trajectory is simply unsustainable. The U.S. is more than $13.3 trillion in debt. (See Public Notice’s fact sheet on irresponsible governing.) Taxpayers pay interest on that debt just like homeowners pay interest on their mortgage. That interest alone, when adjusted for inflation, will nearly triple from $221 billion to $637 billion between 2011 and 2020. (See Public Notice’s fact sheet on unsustainable spending.)
Furthermore, this spending is not helping the economy. Wesbury and Stein turn north to make this point. Our neighbors in Canada have been cutting spending and taxes for some time. Their unemployment rate, while still high by U.S. historical standards, is 1.5 percentage points lower than the current U.S. rate of 9.5 percent.
