We can't cut the debt just by cutting spending…

The U.S. national debt can’t be trimmed by cutting spending alone. That is the illogical and easily-disproved lie circulating through the main stream media.  It’s a mantra that is repeated… over, and over, and over.  Considering that this claim is at the core of the current progressive demand for tax increases, it’s sad that only a handful of fiscal conservatives are taking people to task on the complete dishonesty of the position.

Keeping this as basic as possible so that even the political establishment types in Washington might understand it – if we keep cutting spending until the government spends less in a year than it receives in taxes (innovative concept!) and then we apply the money that’s left over to our debt, that will actually lower the national debt.

So hypothetically, if the government collects $2.5 trillion in taxes this year and our politicians could manage to squeak by on spending only a measly $2 trillion,  the debt could be lowered by half a trillion dollars. No kidding, I did the math on it myself.

Nowhere in that equation was there a need to mention raising taxes.

There is one catch in this plan that should be explained for the political elite.  “Cut spending” does not mean a smaller increase in spending than the one politicians had budgeted for.  “Cut spending” means actually spending less this year than last year.

As this oh-so complicated example shows, it is possible to lower the national debt just by cutting spending.  The problem is that it requires cutting spending in areas that the leaders of both political parties don’t want to cut.

A quick look at the U.S. debt clock shows that the country is quickly being spent into oblivion.  To avoid an economic catastrophe, some tough decisions are going to have to be made – it’s time for members of Congress to put on their big boy pants and start acting like adults.

Of course, if anyone ever does try to cut spending enough to lower the national debt, that effort will immediately be met with sob stories about all the people who will be hurt.  While it’s true that some people might be temporarily hurt by massive spending cuts, the cuts themselves aren’t to blame for the hardships they case.  The real problem is the progressive politicians who made people dependent on government in the first place.

Unfortunately, that is the situation we’re in if we want to keep the country from collapsing under all this debt.  If we don’t make some uncomfortable cuts in government spending, we’re all going to feel a much greater pain… and soon.