Opinion | Wilford: Democrats Continue To Misplace Blame For Debt Crisis – By Andrew Wilford (Daily Caller) / Jan 27, 2023
Yet again, the richest country in the world finds itself unable to abide by the most meager of fiscal constraints — the debt ceiling. More of a “debt retractable roof,” the debt ceiling is the limit of what the federal government is authorized by Congress to borrow in order to meet its fiscal obligations. In the past, Congress has simply solved the problem of running up against this ceiling by increasing it. But while “raising the roof” may be good advice in a club, raising the debt ceiling while totally ignoring the underlying drivers of debt is proving to be an unsustainable and irresponsible path forward. Default should not be an option, but neither can Congress continue to pretend that we can continue to spend with impunity.
A course correction is made far more difficult by the fact that progressives are again making a concerted effort to obfuscate the causes of our national debt crisis. In a recent Boston Globe op-ed, Sen. Elizabeth Warren presented our current fiscal crisis as a result of undertaxing Americans and the 2017 tax reform law. But the numbers don’t back that up.
The last year the federal government spent less than it took in was in 2001, when spending was $1.86 trillion and revenues were $1.99 trillion. As of last year, even with pandemic emergency spending winding down, spending is still almost triple that number at $5.8 trillion. Revenues have increased drastically as well, just not quite as fast ($4.8 trillion).
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