Here’s A Fiscal Fix: Politicians Cap Government Spending, Or They Leave Office

By Larry Elder in The Daily Caller 6/7/23

With a debt ceiling deal reached, Congress is back to “business as usual.” America’s career politicians are ready to borrow and spend unlimited sums in the years ahead, whatever the fiscal consequences.

The recent weeks of partisan bickering simply reminds us that the Washington swamp spends way, way too much money. The national debt currently hovers around $32 trillion. The U.S. budget deficit, meanwhile, is expected to exceed $1 trillion in 2023 and this does not include unfunded liabilities that amount to taking more.

Here’s an idea: Cap government spending at 10 percent of GDP—less than half of Biden’s proposal—and attach real consequences to surpassing it. My proposal is to enact a hard spending cap that, if surpassed, results in the president and all sitting members of Congress losing their right to run for re-election in the next cycle.

There is no excuse for President Biden or members of Congress to spend like there’s no tomorrow. Spend enough, and there will be no tomorrow, at least not from a fiscal health perspective. The spending problem is impossible to address without a hard cap in place—one that carries real repercussions if (when) ignored.

Read the full article here.