Listen to “New Budget Deal Means Even More Debt” on Spreaker.
Eager to avoid a debt ceiling showdown, the Treasury Department and congressional Democrats appear to be on the brink of a budget agreement that could saddle taxpayers with an additional $2 trillion in debt over the next decade.
According to reports, the agreement runs through July 31, 2021. It would effectively end all remaining elements of the 2011 Budget Control Act known as sequester, while adding $350 billion in new spending in exchange for about $75 billion in offsets.
If that seems lopsided in favor of more spending, that’s because it is. But National Taxpayers Union President Pete Sepp says it’s even worse than it looks.
“The things is there are ripple effects past two years. If you do a decade-long total, you’re talking about something closer to $2 trillion of additional spending permitted by this deal,” said Sepp.
Sepp also points out that a lot of new spending never goes away.
“Many of the spending increases called for will be baked into future budgets going down the line even if they try to re-establish the debt ceiling a couple of years from now. So this is a real problem for taxpayers and, unfortunately, it represents the final retreat from the Budget Control Act of 2011, which established that sequester process,” said Sepp.
National Taxpayers Union research shows the sequester process saved the average American household roughly $7,400 by 2017. Sepp says removing those restraints is nothing more than a massive tax hike on future generations and the future is coming sooner than wee realize.
“Deficit spending is really just tax increases on a future type of taxpayer: unborn taxpayers, or young taxpayers, even taxpayers who are currently filing their taxes down the line would face higher taxes to service all of these debts,” said Sepp.
Listen to the full podcast to hear Sepp respond to suggestions that sequestration cuts were “mindless and irresponsible.” He also explains why spending “offsets” are often a mirage, why the Trump administration isn’t demanding more fiscal restraint, and why so few people seem to care about the mounting debt.
