You might think $34.6 trillion in federal debt, a $1.7 trillion federal budget deficit in 2023, and a $1 trillion current deficit for fiscal year 2024, with six months to go, and a new $1.2 trillion spending package to finish the year, might compel President Joe Biden to rethink some of his spending plans.
And even if that massive amount of debt doesn’t faze Biden, you might think it would push the media to nag him into explaining how much debt is too much. But you’d be wrong on both counts. And yet the question of how much debt is too much may be the most important public policy issue facing the country.
Biden is out promoting his new scheme to cancel student loan debt, which the White House claims would help up to 30 million people at a cost of $146 billion.
Of course, the debt isn’t being “canceled.” It’s being transferred to taxpayers. It’s money the federal government is supposed to receive but won’t—unless the U.S. Supreme Court strikes down Biden’s scheme again.
And then there’s the $95 billion aid package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan that has passed the Senate but not the House.
In other words, by the time we finish this fiscal year (Sept. 30), Biden may have added another $2 trillion to $2.5 trillion to the federal debt—perhaps pushing it to $37 trillion.
Is that too much?
In most areas of ethics, law and economics, people ask if there is a limiting principle, and if so, what is it?
We have a First Amendment right to freedom of speech. Does that mean people can say anything they want anytime they want? No, the Supreme Court has recognized that there are some limits to speech.
We believe in supporting the value of life? Does that mean we never let a terminally ill person die? No, there are times when it is appropriate to take a person off life support.
Do we believe that the government can continue to spend as much money as it wants, regardless of how much debt that’s creating—and that future taxpayers will have to pay for? Biden apparently does, but most people, including most economists, will say no.
But if the government cannot continue growing the federal debt at the rate it has, what’s the limit? Where’s the so-called debt red line?
Journalists have simply not been pressing Biden on how much debt is too much. That should be their top priority. Biden will continue to ignore the issue until the media no longer let him.
April 9, 2024