Editor, The Smithfield Times:

Federal spending is way out of control.

The federal government has run a deficit every fiscal year since 2001, according to the U.S. Treasury Data Lab. Continued deficit spending without oversight will not only put existing social safety-net programs in jeopardy, but potentially lead to financial disaster.

Social Security payments for retired Americans will be exhausted in 2034, with 76% of anticipated benefits covered thereafter. Medicare and Medicaid hospital funds will run out of money by the end of the decade, or sooner.

With $3 trillion budget deficits for fiscal years 2020 and 2021, and a pending $1 trillion infrastructure package, the country cannot afford another $3.5 trillion social spending plan, while doing absolutely nothing to shore up existing programs.

Don’t believe Democratic leaders when they say this $3.5 trillion plan is paid for and will cost nothing. Government spending estimates almost always prove to be inaccurate. For example, the original 10-year estimate for the Affordable Care Act was $940 billion, revised to $1.76 trillion just two years later.

In a recent Wall Street Journal opinion piece, “Why I Won’t Support Spending Another $3.5 Trillion,” U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., said: “Over the past 18 months, we’ve spent more than $5 trillion responding to the coronavirus pandemic. Now Democratic congressional leaders propose to pass the largest single spending bill in history with no regard to rising inflation, crippling debt or the inevitability of future crises. Ignoring the fiscal consequences of our policy choices will create a disastrous future for the next generation of Americans.”

The national debt is approaching $29 trillion and interest on that debt is projected to be $1 trillion by 2029. Still, many in Washington think they can continue to spend limitless amounts of money without consequence. They are wrong. Saddling future generations with massive debt is unconscionable.

Tell our representatives excessive government spending must stop, now.

 

Joe Naneville

Windsor