June 23, 2020

Stop the Madness of Congressional Spending

The coronavirus shutdown has flattened multiple industries across America — everything from airlines and manufacturers to hospitals, retailers, oil and gas producers, and restaurants. Many of the 30 million small and large businesses in the country have reported a 30% reduction in revenues. Amid the carnage, one sector of the economy is thriving like never before in the history of the republic: the government.

The coronavirus shutdown has flattened multiple industries across America — everything from airlines and manufacturers to hospitals, retailers, oil and gas producers, and restaurants. Many of the 30 million small and large businesses in the country have reported a 30% reduction in revenues. Amid the carnage, one sector of the economy is thriving like never before in the history of the republic: the government.

Congress has already spent more than $2 trillion on phases one, two, three and 3 ½ of coronavirus relief packages. The irresponsible bill from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi would raise that spending total to $5 trillion, which is on top of the $4.71 trillion that Congress already authorized. We are getting very close to an unfathomable $10 trillion federal budget, which is more money in one single year, adjusted for inflation, than the nation devoted to fighting the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, World War I, World War II and the Vietnam War combined.

The problem is that the White House thinks that more debt spending by Uncle Sam will be a “stimulus” to the economy and will help President Donald Trump win reelection. The administration has put out the word that another $2 trillion, phase-four package with aid to states, payments to individuals and infrastructure spending — a “compromise” — is in the works. It is a prosperity-killing redistribution scheme, not an economic revival plan, Mr. President.

If Trump and the Republicans in Congress were to agree to another multitrillion-dollar spending plan, the government in 2020 would grow to its most substantial level and percentage of our economy in history. Do Republicans want that to be their legacy?

Including state and local expenditures, the government would, for the first time in the history of the United States, consume 52% of our $20.4 trillion gross domestic product. Government would be more significant than all of the output of every business and every private sector worker in America. Even the GOP “compromise” would push us close to the tipping point of government, more than 50% of GDP. It is nothing more than a road to financial ruin.

All we are doing here is “stimulating” the government and crowding out private spending and investment. Policies such as paying millions of people (more than 60% of workers, according to the Congressional Budget Office) more money to stay unemployed than to go back to work, and paying states more money to enable them to remain shut down, will inhibit the fast recovery we want in jobs and incomes, not stimulate it.

The offer of more federal money to Democratic mayors and governors enables them to keep their businesses shuttered and their commerce at a standstill because the feds will write them $50 billion checks.

One way to put the Washington spending blitz in historical perspective is to consider what happened during the Great Depression in the 1930s. Even at the height of what many at the time called Franklin Roosevelt’s “socialist New Deal,” government spending never eclipsed 20% of GDP. Pelosi has said that these times require a “Rooseveltian” response, but what we are doing now is 2 ½ times the New Deal in size relative to the private economy.

The phase-four spending bill would bring total government spending to nearly $80,000 per U.S. household, or $20,000 more than the median per-household income in 2019 of roughly $60,000. If all this government spending were the magical solution to all our economic woes, we would all be feeling wealthy right now, but somehow, despite all the government “aid,” we are all feeling much poorer.

Last week, a coalition of conservative leaders and organizations under the banner of “Save Our Country” signed a letter asking the White House and Senate Republicans to “stop the madness of runaway spending.” The letter, signed by several dozen prominent conservatives such as economist Arthur Laffer, former Reagan Cabinet members Ed Meese and James C. Miller, and former Sen. Jim DeMint, argues that “runaway government spending is the new virus afflicting our economy. The best way to supercharge a jobs recovery would be to repeal the payroll tax so that every working American would receive a 7.5% raise in (their) paycheck immediately, and every small business would see a reduction in their payroll costs of an equal amount. This incentivizes hiring and work. The economy desperately needs more of both of these and less debt spending.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts tweeted out in response to the “stop the spending” letter that Republicans who want to stop government spending and debt lack compassion. But government spending isn’t compassionate. It is wasteful, inefficient and counterproductive. Let’s hope the Republicans rediscover their fiscal conservative credentials before they join Pelosi and Warren in their crusade to spend us into financial ruin.

COPYRIGHT 2020 CREATORS.COM

Who We Are

The Patriot Post is a highly acclaimed weekday digest of news analysis, policy and opinion written from the heartland — as opposed to the MSM’s ubiquitous Beltway echo chambers — for grassroots leaders nationwide. More

What We Offer

On the Web

We provide solid conservative perspective on the most important issues, including analysis, opinion columns, headline summaries, memes, cartoons and much more.

Via Email

Choose our full-length Digest or our quick-reading Snapshot for a summary of important news. We also offer Cartoons & Memes on Monday and Alexander’s column on Wednesday.

Our Mission

The Patriot Post is steadfast in our mission to extend the endowment of Liberty to the next generation by advocating for individual rights and responsibilities, supporting the restoration of constitutional limits on government and the judiciary, and promoting free enterprise, national defense and traditional American values. We are a rock-solid conservative touchstone for the expanding ranks of grassroots Americans Patriots from all walks of life. Our mission and operation budgets are not financed by any political or special interest groups, and to protect our editorial integrity, we accept no advertising. We are sustained solely by you. Please support The Patriot Fund today!


The Patriot Post and Patriot Foundation Trust, in keeping with our Military Mission of Service to our uniformed service members and veterans, are proud to support and promote the National Medal of Honor Heritage Center, the Congressional Medal of Honor Society, both the Honoring the Sacrifice and Warrior Freedom Service Dogs aiding wounded veterans, the National Veterans Entrepreneurship Program, the Folds of Honor outreach, and Officer Christian Fellowship, the Air University Foundation, and Naval War College Foundation, and the Naval Aviation Museum Foundation. "Greater love has no one than this, to lay down one's life for his friends." (John 15:13)

★ PUBLIUS ★

“Our cause is noble; it is the cause of mankind!” —George Washington

Please join us in prayer for our nation — that righteous leaders would rise and prevail and we would be united as Americans. Pray also for the protection of our Military Patriots, Veterans, First Responders, and their families. Please lift up your Patriot team and our mission to support and defend our Republic's Founding Principle of Liberty, that the fires of freedom would be ignited in the hearts and minds of our countrymen.

The Patriot Post is protected speech, as enumerated in the First Amendment and enforced by the Second Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, in accordance with the endowed and unalienable Rights of All Mankind.

Copyright © 2024 The Patriot Post. All Rights Reserved.

The Patriot Post does not support Internet Explorer. We recommend installing the latest version of Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, or Google Chrome.