Our national debt continues to grow unabated. Neither political party shows any interest in controlling it; in fact when they do they face ostracism. The sad state affairs is that members of Congress do in fact represent their constituents —too well.
Years ago, in 1984, in a book titled “A Season for Spoils”, its author Jonathan Lash wrote:
“Years before, Tozzi had decided that there might not be much more that could be done to control federal spending, but that a great deal could be done to curtail federal requirements that made industry spend. He embarked on a campaign to give OMB the same kind of control over agency regulations that it already had over their budgets.”
More specifically, federal programs can be divided into two groups: spending programs (giveth) and mandates such as regulation and taxes (taketh). Tozzi is of the view that it is possible to control the “taketh” programs but it is virtually impossible to control the “giveth” programs such as federal spending.
As we approach Independence Day in the year 2017 how independent will we be when in the not too distant future interest on the debt is so great that it is surpassed only by spending on entitlement programs and national defense? How independent will we be as a nation when we must make the decision as to whether we forfeit payments for the national debt or subject ourselves to massive inflation?
The sacrifices of so many are being squandered by the lack of action by so few.
Center for Regulatory Effectiveness
