"The US can't keep spending so much without consequences," reads a tweet by the Cato Institute.
Congress recently approved a $95 billion foreign aid package to send to Ukraine, Israel, and the Indo‐Pacific region.
— Cato Institute (@CatoInstitute) May 5, 2024
The US can't keep spending so much without consequences, given our current financial path… https://t.co/ZaChKbsrHi pic.twitter.com/ax88vcwQsM
There exists a limit to the amount of national spending that can be sustained. What exactly the limit is may not be clearly visible or precisely definable, at least not at the current moment, but it exists. A corporate checking account balance precisely defines the limit beyond which a company cannot spend without the consequence of borrowing. A speed limit sign on the side of a road precisely defines with clear visibility the posted lawful limit of speed beyond which a driver may subject himself to the consequence of being ticketed. What the limit of national spending is will be brought to clear visibility and precisely defined by the "consequences" that the Cato Institute tweet references.
One solution is for those elected to stop oversized spending to do what they are elected to do. High inflation continues to damage the economy. The national debt is skyrocketing, now more than $34 trillion. Stuffed-pig spending legislation seems to be the rule without exception. When the Republican Party, the political party of the two which holds to principles of fiscal responsibility, wins an election, such as the 2022 Midterm Elections yielded for House Republicans, those elected Republicans are empowered to be a check on the reckless spending that Democrats without which do. When those elected to stop reckless spending fail to do so, there is a threefold result. First, it renders less valuable the electoral choice of voters who elected Republicans to provide fiscal responsibility. Second, it diminishes the Republican Party, which purports itself to stand for fiscal responsibility. This has a real effect beyond merely political rhetoric and abstract ideological debate, and that real effect can be manifested by a tangential down-pulling effect on other Republicans running for office. Third, and perhaps most practically, it allows the reckless spending to continue, furthering an already perilous spending and economic situation.
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If Republicans campaign as fiscal hawks who are sincerely tired of the immoral spending practices that the U.S. federal government has engaged in for too long, they must also govern unwaveringly toward that end. Spending beyond sustainable levels will catch our nation up at some point, and the spending hole gets deeper with every oversized spending package it takes to stop spending beyond what is affordable.
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