Telling Congress to Reduce the Deficit by Cutting Spending

Kathryn Nix / June 24, 2010

On Saturday, June 26, America Speaks will host a national town hall meeting in which any and all Americans will be able to voice their opinions on the federal budget and the devastating effects that Washington’s growing deficits will have on the U.S. economy.  The discussion will focus on ways to address the fiscal crisis before it is too late.

Federal deficits are growing due to increasing spending, not because of a lack of revenue.  Heritage budget expert Brian Riedl explains in a recent paper:

The composition of spending has shifted dramatically from defense to entitlements, yet total spending has nearly always remained within 2 percentage points of 20.3 percent of GDP…Revenue stability should continue…Yet spending stability has ended. Baseline spending is projected to leap to 23.7 percent of GDP by 2015 and to 26.5 percent by 2020—levels not seen since World War II.

Because of this, solutions to the federal government’s unsustainable fiscal behavior should focus on reducing spending, not raising taxes. (more…)