Leaders should prepare for downturn

By

Opinion

September 12, 2019 - 10:17 AM

The Congressional Budget Office is sounding alarms, but it’s unclear whether anyone is listening. This year, the budget deficit will likely hit $960 billion — nearly a trillion. Over the next decade, the deficit is projected to break that amount each year.

Let’s be clear about what the deficit is, and what it’s not. Put simply, it’s the yearly gap between the United States’ tax collections and its spending. That amount is then added to the overall national debt (currently more than $22 trillion).

Deficits have ballooned in the age of President Trump for a simple reason. Legislators cut taxes dramatically. A government starved of revenue is one that will run deficits, as we’ve seen in Kansas. And as everyone here knows all too well, promises that economic expansion will cover the cost of tax cuts is nonsense. The gaps turn into chasms, and government falters.

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