deficit

Government budget deficits continue on America’s fiscal horizon as far as the eye can see, but they are merely symptoms of a deeper deficit that is lacking in clear thinking on the underlying increases in the size and scope of government.

It should not be too surprising that with this amount of government spending a sizable percentage of the U.S. population receives monies from Uncle Sam in one form or another.

Almost all Americans agree that the process to pass a federal budget has become more difficult than scaling Mt. Everest.

It has been said that economists have predicted “nine of the last five recessions,” or words to that effect, suggesting that the “dismal science” can’t be trusted.

For generations, one of the great joys in life has been watching Roadrunner cartoons, during which the Roadrunner always manages to find a way to trick Wile E. Coyote into running off a massive cliff.

How debt is shaping up to be our undoing.

I’m incessantly harangued by pin heads – about everything.

Illinois now has the worst credit rating in the municipal bond market. Moody’s Investment Services pegs Illinois’ debt at Baa3, and it could further downgrade that credit rating later in 2018.

President Donald Trump has proposed a trillion-dollar plan for infrastructure investment. 

The federal government has a spending problem, not a revenue problem.

Once again, the financial fears have been ratcheted up due to recent announcements by the U.S. Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) that by the middle of March 2018 the Federal government will have run out of room to continue borrowing due to the official debt ceiling.

Since February 2017, the federal deficit has grown by more than $500 billion, to over $20 trillion. The average debt owed per person is now estimated to be greater than $62,000.

A Grand Bargain would be a restoration of the balance between the federal government, the states, and the people, as it was envisioned in the 10th Amendment to the Constitution.