Spending, Not Tax Revenues, is the Problem
In this article (requires Adobe) from the Cato Journal, Andrew Young started off with the following Ronald Reagan quotation from 1980:
“[My opponent] tells us that first we’ve got to reduce spending before we can reduce taxes. Well, if you’ve got a kid that’s extravagant, you can lecture him all you want to about his extravagance. Or you can cut his allowance and achieve the same end much quicker.”
For a visual version of that quotation, let’s turn to the Heritage Foundation’s FY 2011 budget chart book. According to the chart below on the responsibility of runaway spending for future deficits, Heritage explains:
“The main driver behind long-term deficits is government spending—not low revenues. While revenue will surpass its historical average of 18.0 percent of GDP by 2021, spending will shoot past its historical average of 20.3 percent, reaching 26.4 percent in the same year.”
On October 2, 2011, we growled that Congress' so-called Super Deficit Committee should forget about raising taxes and "cut the spending" instead. The chart above does nothing but put a spotlight on the inability of Congress to do its job.