It’s time to get our heads out of the sand when it comes to the federal budget. Already mandatory spending (Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, etc) is 62% of the budget. Only the other 38%, which includes constitutionally-mandated functions like, oh, national defense, is discretionary.
If we stay on our current path, by 2045, a person paying 10% in taxes today will have a tax burden of 25%.
In today’s column by Rep. J. Randy Forbes (VA-04), he outlines the need for fundamental change in how we go about “balancing” the federal budget. Here’s a snippet:
Leadership in Washington has been avoiding the issue at a time when it is most vital that we begin to address it, despite warnings from the Federal Reserve chairman and trustees from the Medicare and Social Security programs. We have recently begun to see the first of 77 million baby boomers retire. As a result, entitlement spending is growing and adding significantly greater pressure on the federal budget. Congress has a responsibility to the American people to rein in entitlement spending, and our already delayed action should create even greater motivation to act now.
Will the leadership in Congress take action or will they continue to ignore the problem until it’s too late?
