Government should help those who cannot help themselves. It should also assist those in poverty to get out of poverty.
But there is no morality in taking from younger Americans and the nation’s economic future to protect unaffordable entitlement programs. Facing the Democratic consensus that entitlements need trillions in new spending rather than reform, I welcome President Trump’s first step on Monday toward reducing entitlement outlays by $1.9 trillion over 10 years.
Yes, the devil will be in the details as to whether these cost reductions are realistic or simply framed around “cutting waste.” And it must be said, early indications here are not good. Still, that Trump is even admitting entitlement reform might be necessary is a start. Why?
Well, here’s an important statistic: The ratio of lifetime Medicare benefits to lifetime Medicare taxes paid is three to one. Unsurprisingly, Medicare and Social Security are consuming vast and ever increasing proportions of the federal budget, leading America closer to bankruptcy. This budget trajectory means we’re spending hundreds of billions of dollars more simply to pay off the interest on the national debt. This keep-spending-more-on-entitlements arrangement is thus wholly immoral. It steals from the nation’s young people and our economic future in order to cauterize a wound that cannot be cauterized.
The key here is that this is ultimately as much a question of morality as it is math.
The consensus of Democrats such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., is that we should massively increase spending on entitlement programs. A few realities stand in the way. For one, the rich cannot come close to paying for these programs. For another, tax gouging companies is economic suicide in our global marketplace.
What would this mean for middle-class lives?
Well, it wouldn’t be good. Fueling an ever increasing national debt load, Democratic spending plans would crowd out private investment, assuming it wasn’t already gutted by other genius Democratic proposals, and foster interest rate spikes. Interest rate spikes would mean less money for individuals and small businesses to invest in their better future. Of course, this isn’t a problem for Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez. They believe government should control individual lives.
It’s true that Republicans don’t have all the answers yet. To pay for military spending we should allow the income tax cuts to expire. But Democrats deserve to be challenged when they say entitlements need more money. Trump is right to challenge them. Now conservatives should press the president to put detailed meat on the bones of his reform.
