Living Beyond Their Means

The tax bill blocked by the Senate was indeed a bad bill (“Good Riddance to a Bad Tax Bill,” Review & Outlook, August 1). According to CBO estimates, it would have significantly added to the now $35 trillion national debt. 

 

Imagine for a minute that someone with almost $445,000 in credit card debt said to you, “I just don’t make enough money.” You’d think that this person was a fool and caution them to reduce their spending.  Unfortunately, this is exactly the argument that Congressional Democrats want the American people to believe. 

 

With annual federal revenues of $4.5 trillion, the national debt represents almost eight years' worth of revenue.  Meanwhile, the median weekly earnings of full-time workers is equivalent to about $57,150 annually.  Multiplying this number by the debt-to-income ratio of the federal government gives us about $445,000. 

 

Are we really to believe that Congress has a revenue problem?