Washington Examiner / Magazine
February 9, 2021 Issue
February 9, 2021 Print Edition
Cover Story
Exit Toomey
When Pat Toomey was elected to represent Pennsylvania in the Senate in 2010, he hoped to rein in the federal government’s runaway spending and looming budget crisis. Roughly $14 trillion more in debt later, suffice it to say that these hopes didn’t materialize. Now, after announcing he plans to retire in 2022, the senator worries that he will leave behind a federal government on a “very bleak” financial trajectory. In an interview with the Washington Examiner, he explained why the current pandemic crisis could be followed by a fiscal disaster. The first COVID-19 relief package was indeed “unprecedented and massive,” Toomey said, but he argues it was necessary. “The government closed down the economy to a very large degree, so we didn’t have much choice but to replace the lost income. And I think it would have been absolutely catastrophic had we not done so.” Yet with the national debt at $27.8 trillion (and counting), roughly $222,000 per federal taxpayer, it’s clear that our country’s fiscal woes long predate the COVID-19 crisis. Nonetheless, the train remains headed toward broken tracks. “The fundamental drivers of our fiscal imbalance remain ... the big entitlement programs,” he said, referring to programs such as Social Security and Medicare. Both programs are set to reach insolvency within 15 years. “And we’ve done nothing to put them on a better footing,” Toomey lamented. “Nothing at all. So, the medium-term outlook is...

Stories that matter—told with clarity and conviction.

Your Land

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