EPA shuttering museum that cost $315 per visitor to stay open — with barely anyone showing up
Typical of these stories, there is not a peep about the U.S. going bankrupt. The latest is that within 10 years, the interest on the national debt will consume 30% of the Federal budget, the economy grows slower than our debt increase, and we enter the “debt spiral” from which there is no good escape.
In the normal world, a choice to spend money on X is a choice not to spend money on Y, Z, A, B and C. It’s about making choices.
The Federal government does not work that way, though. A choice to spend money on X is a choice to borrow more money that can never be paid back. Thus, reckless, uncapped spending leads eventually to runaway debt.
Raise taxes? There is an optimal level of taxation to maximize economic growth and public services. Collect too little, and public services fall. Collect too much, and economic growth stagnates or retards. Some economists think we are already close the optimum level of taxation. They point to tax collections remaining largely the same during periods of “high taxation” and “low taxation” – it all sort of evens out.
