The Elephant in the Room
Every summer, Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) combs through the dozens of budget proposals drafted by Presidents past and present, senators, representatives, think tanks, and nonprofits in an effort to come up with a list called Prime Cuts that would hack away at government bloat and lighten the load for taxpayers. CAGW staff takes this project seriously, leaving no stone unturned and sparing no agency. Last year, for the first time since 1993, CAGW produced a Prime Cuts Summary detailing the federal government’s most wasteful and outdated programs.
Prime Cuts 2011 included 691 recommendations that would save taxpayers $391.9 billion in the first year and $1.8 trillion over five years. The proposals go after the soft, fleshy parts of the budget while also addressing long-standing and difficult issues. They cut discretionary programs that constitute corporate welfare, duplicative spending, or programs that many people consider outside the purview of a lean, effective government – programs, in other words, that should be first out of budget-trimmers’ mouths in any discussion of how to shrink the deficit and pay down the debt.
Unfortunately, even if all of Prime Cuts’ recommendations were enacted, the deficit would remain. The United States has run deficits of more than $1 trillion for each of the past three years, and shows no signs of slowing down. Making matters more complicated is the fact that the vast majority of money each year goes to programs that most people consider well within the purview of government: Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and defense.
Current projections show that the federal government’s payments for these programs and interest on the debt will equal government revenue sometime between 2020 and 2030. When that happens, all discretionary spending will be deficit spending. In 2008, Medicare benefits exceeded the program’s tax revenues for the first time, and in 2010, Social Security paid out more in benefits than it brought in through the payroll tax. Before the end of this decade Social Security will begin to do so every year. Anyone who talks about tackling the very real threat of rising deficits and crushing debt without referencing entitlements and defense should be dismissed as unserious on budgetary matters.
So it should come as no surprise that CAGW’s staff was nonplussed by President Obama’s 2012 State of the Union Address. The President managed to deliver 7,000 words on the challenges currently facing Americans and their government without suggesting any kind of tangible cost-cutting measure. His only reference to defense spending was to point out that, if he has his way, only half the windfall from drawing down troop levels in Iraq and Afghanistan will go toward debt reduction. The coming explosion in entitlement payments went unmentioned.
Put another way, President Obama is missing in action on budgetary matters. Whatever one believes is the right path – a higher retirement age, less defense spending, means-testing for Medicare and Social Security, or a combination of those and others – lower spending is an inevitability, one that will arrive either through government diktat or bankruptcy. Washington has a spending addiction, and an important step toward recovery will be admitting that politicians have promised Americans more than can ever be afforded. Any politician who fails to say anything about this crisis cannot be taken seriously.
— Luke Gelber
