Debate continues in Washington about more multi-trillion-dollar spending plans. But we just got an ugly reminder that the federal spending we’ve already passed is bankrupting the country.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office just released its latest projections, and they offer a dire warning indeed. The government analysts expect the annual federal budget deficit—the gap between spending and revenue—to hit an eye-popping $3 trillion in fiscal year 2021. That’s roughly $20,935 in new debt per federal taxpayer, to be added in just one year!
This will be just slightly below the record-breaking deficit the government ran in fiscal year 2020. But nonetheless, this astounding $3 trillion sum is nearly 3 times higher than the already-high budget deficit for 2019. Relative to the size of the economy, it will be the second-largest budget deficit since 1945—which was incurred during World War II.
Budget deficits and trillion-dollar sums are hard to conceptualize. So to understand what this means practically, here are 3 tangible ways skyrocketing federal debt hurts everyday Americans:
So, all Americans should be seriously concerned to learn that the debt will further explode in 2021. But why exactly are this year’s figures going to be so extreme?
After years of fiscal irresponsibility under Republicans and Democrats alike and with large entitlement programs spiraling toward bankruptcy, we were always going to run a large deficit in 2021, like we did in 2018, 2019, etc. But it wasn’t going to be so astronomical, like $3 trillion.
What changed? One big factor is the multi-trillion-dollar spending package President Biden and Democrats in Congress forced through in the name of “COVID-19 relief” and “stimulus.”
In reality, the package was full of unrelated waste and partisan projects. Plus, Ivy League economic projections show it will actually hurt the economy in the long run. But it did do one thing successfully: spend trillions of taxpayer dollars. And that’s one big reason why our debt problem is set to spiral even further out of control.
Like this story? Click here to sign up for the FEE Daily and get free-market news and analysis like this from Policy Correspondent Brad Polumbo in your inbox every weekday.
This article was originally published on FEE.org
“Trent Staggs is 100% MAGA, and is running to fill The Mitt Romney, a Total…
Ever since March 16, when presidential candidate Donald Trump created a controversy by predicting President…
Law enforcement began clearing a pro-Palestine encampment of protesters on a major university’s campus Saturday…
Schedule Summary: President Joe Biden will deliver remarks at the White House Correspondents' Dinner on Saturday evening.…