Reading the Congressional Budget Office’s latest Monthly Budget Review, a recent query posed by comedian-podcaster Adam Carolla came to mind: “What the f*** happened to adults?”
Eleven months into fiscal 2023, the CBO estimates, The Swamp’s “budget deficit was $1.5 trillion … $0.6 trillion more than the shortfall recorded during the same period last year.”
Lockdown hysteria is, at least for now, a thing of the past. It’s been over a year since payroll employment surpassed its February 2020 mark. Twenty-one states — from Oregon to Mississippi, Massachusetts to North Dakota — either tied or bested their record-low unemployment rates in July. The past 12 months have seen the Dow Jones Industrial Average swell by 12 percent. Domestic oil production has expanded, since last summer, almost everywhere — West Virginia, the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, North Dakota, Alaska.
And the federal government is as broke as it’s ever been.
On the revenue side, a “larger than expected” dip in receipts made a hefty contribution to the deficit. That’s puzzling, given the condition of the economy. What’s not in question is the role of expenditures:
• The cost of Social Security “rose by $123 billion (or 11 percent) because of increases in the average benefit payment (stemming mostly from cost-of-living adjustments) and also because of increases in the number of beneficiaries.”
• Medicare expenses “increased, on net, by $116 billion (or 18 percent) because of increased benefit payments and because of decreased recoveries of payments made through the COVID-19 Accelerated and Advance Payments Program.”
• “Outlays of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation … rose by $52 billion as a result of facilitating the resolution of bank failures in the spring.”
• Pentagon spending “was $48 billion (or 7 percent) more than in the same period last fiscal year; the largest increases were in the areas of operation and maintenance and research and development.”
• The cost of Medicaid — the federal-state healthcare program “for the poor” — grew “by $27 billion (or 5 percent) as a result of enrollment increases that were mainly attributable to provisions in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act that required states to maintain the eligibility of all enrollees until the end of the coronavirus public health emergency.”
And taxpayers’ minimum payment for Washington’s addiction to borrowing? “Net outlays for interest on the public debt rose by $149 billion (or 30 percent), mainly because interest rates are significantly higher than they were in the first 11 months of fiscal year 2022.” Putting the shortfall’s surge in perspective, $149 billion is more than Caterpillar’s market capitalization. (The full interest payment stands at $644 — more than the value of Visa.)
In February the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) calculated that “net interest on the national debt” will cost “an eye-popping $10.5 trillion over the next decade” — an amount that “will exceed all defense spending.” In August, the organization warned that in 2033, “when the Social Security retirement fund becomes insolvent,” annual payments to a “typical newly retired dual-income couple” will be slashed by $17,400.
Yes, Joe Biden makes Donald Trump look like Calvin Coolidge. But we’re through the looking glass here, people. Team Blue and Team Red mean nothing when one enters the Insolvency Realm. Math is math, whether you’re a donkey or an elephant.
Our fiscal plight is dire. But making things worse is the undeniable verity that it didn’t have to be like this.
In January 2001, the CBO projected that the national debt might be paid off by 2008. Two decades of strong economic growth — it helped that the Baby Boomers were in their peak earning years — offered fedpols an opportunity to not only drain the Potomac of red ink, but begin work on entitlement reform and issue a bigger “peace dividend.” Privatized pensions could have eliminated Social Security’s long-term liabilities. Capitalism-oriented healthcare reforms could have trimmed the price tags for Medicare and Medicaid. And a sweeping Base Realignment and Closure process could have right-sized the military to protect America, not police the planet.
Didn’t happen. The “Global War on Terror,” “farm bills,” “shovel-ready projects,” Obamacare, COVID-19 hysteria, “infrastructure investment,” a blank check for Ukraine, semiconductor subsidies — again and again, fedpols chose profligacy instead of book-balancing. And voters didn’t object. (Many cheered them on.)
Perhaps there were a few adults left along Pennsylvania Avenue in 2001, but their numbers weren’t enough to affect the nation’s spendthriftiness. We’re all spoiled children now, and we’ve only just begun to experience the consequences of our immaturity.
I agree whole-heartedly.. I had to take courses on the Congressional budget process when I was a financial analyst at the Labs. They haven't followed any of their own procedures for years. 1996 was the last time we had a balanced budget. Many actions taken by our government only increase reliance on government instead of encouraging individual responsibility. I don';t believe any of the inspector generals or auditors in government ever look at duplicity of services or obsolescence of some of the projects and programs that are continually funded. They refuse to demand a zero-base budget and only seem to pass legislation that will continue to enrich themselves.
I wonder how much money was spent subsidizing Green New Deal (Wind Mills, Solar Panels and Electric Blow-Up Vehicle) Failures, Automaker Bail-Outs, Pentagon spending that can never be balanced, Losses from Crime, Money spent on Illegals and more money to be spent on Illegals, Lawyer fees on meaningless Trump and Hunter Biden Trials, Leaving state-of-the-art weapons in Afghanistan, and wasting 100's of billions of dollars in Ukraine and other useless Countries like Iran, China and Russia!!