Des Moines Register: Soaring U.S. Debt Shows GOP is Not the Party of Fiscal Responsibility

Article by Carol Hunter on Des Moines Register

Once upon a time, the GOP claimed to be the party of fiscal responsibility. Republican politicians lamented the federal deficit and debt. They campaigned on reducing spending, making Social Security solvent and balancing Uncle Sam’s budget. 

That was a bunch of baloney. 

The GOP-controlled Congress has exacerbated this country’s financial problems. The federal deficit nearly doubled in August from a year earlier, the Treasury Department said last week. The government ran a $214 billion deficit, compared with a $107 billion deficit in August 2017.

Why? The same reason a household drowns in red ink: It spends more than it brings in. Government spending is up 7 percent so far this fiscal year, while revenues have risen only 1 percent. 

Republicans insisted on passing a sweeping tax cut bill that took effect in January. It set the country on course to further starve an already strapped federal government. The cuts are helping push the nation toward unprecedented debt and heightening the risk of another financial crisis, according to a June report from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. 

The federal debt currently stands at about $15 trillion, or 78 percent of the size of the U.S. economy. If current trends continue, the debt will roughly equal the size of the economy within a decade, the budget office predicts.

The hypocrisy of the GOP is on full display. Yet with mid-term elections looming, some of them are still trying to put lipstick on their disastrous tax-cut pig.

Rep. David Young issued a press release in August gushing about the supposed benefits of the bill he supported. He claims it is “growing wages” of Iowans and notes he is “working with his colleagues to make sure the tax relief for individuals is permanent.” 

Huh? Cement the recklessness in place for generations to come? 

There is not a word in Young’s press release about the tax cuts' contribution to the soaring federal deficit and debt. Not a word about where the government is going to find the money to fund health care for seniors, the military, child welfare and numerous other responsibilities. Not a word about the hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars paid each year toward interest on the national debt. 

Tax cuts do not “pay for themselves.” Even when the economy is good, as it is now, these cuts do not generate enough economic activity to be self-financing. And just wait until the economy is not good.

Instead of acknowledging this fiscal reality revealed in numerous federal reports or doing anything to shore up Medicare and Social Security, House GOP leaders are now planning to push a new set of tax-cut proposals. 

They seem to think this will win over voters.

Let's hope not. Anyone who cares about the fiscal solvency and future of this country should insist on hearing how candidates plan to pay for their spending and tax ideas. If they can't or won't answer, vote to send irresponsible politicians packing. 

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