The federal government is racing toward a fiscal cliff, with a new report citing a mind-numbing $838 billion cash shortfall just for the first four months of the fiscal year.
Yet Democrats are losing their minds over Team Trump’s efforts to trim fat and waste. Do they want the Uncle Sam to go belly up?
Per the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, that $838 billion hole is a whopping 15% higher than last year’s October-through-January gap.
Some of the jump reflects timing shifts for certain payments. But even adjusting for that, this year’s hole still runs to $750 billion.
Last month, the CBO projected a nearly $2 trillion in overspending this year — about 6.2% of gross domestic product, vs. just 3.8% on average over the past 50 years.
That would be added to Uncle Sugar’s $36 trillion in IOUs.
Ouch. In a just a few years, the nation’s debt-to-GDP ratio will exceed its World War II peak.
Interest on the debt alone now tops military spending.
Yet for decades, Washington has done next to nothing to curb the runaway spending that fuels the debt. (While federal revenue as share of GDP has stayed constant, outlays have climbed from a 50-year average of 21.1% of GDP to 23.7% this year and are headed toward 24.4% by 2035, the CBO projects.)
Indeed, Democrats have blocked even modest attempts to slow the spending growth.
Enter President Donald Trump, Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. They’re looking to get serious (finally) about DC’s spending addiction.
They aim to trim the federal headcount, roll back foreign aid and other handouts, maybe scrap the Department of Education.
All of which has Democrats apoplectic.
Dem congressmen have called for a “war” to stop the Trump team.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told fellow Democrats of plans to push back against Trump through investigations, litigation, legislation and messaging.
Sen. Andy Kim (D-NJ) warned Republicans not to count on any Democrats to pass a budget and avert a government shutdown in March unless Trump puts DOGE down.
Any effort to “defund programs important to everyday Americans . . . must be choked off in the upcoming government funding bill, if not sooner,” House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries warned.
Just how much red ink do Schumer, Kim, Jeffries & Co. think is acceptable?
When was the last time they pushed for getting a grip on spending?
Know this, Democrats: If you keep blocking every attempt to restore spending sanity, the economic bloodshed will be on your hands.
And you may pay an even bigger price at the polls than you did in November.
