In a Feb. 7 Truth post, Donald Trump wrote, “BALANCED BUDGET!!! DJT.” Politicians on both sides of the aisle like to play a game called: “We will balance the budget in 10 years.” That won’t cut it. The national debt is our clearest and most pressing danger to our national security. Elon Musk and DOGE have demonstrated in just a couple of weeks our current spending levels are at best unnecessary and at worst actively undermining US sovereignty. Government spending is the true tax rate. It drives inflation, and regulations reduce tax revenue.
Our state budget here in North Carolina is balanced every year. We even have surpluses large enough where there’s debate about what to do with all the extra money. Why can’t the federal government operate within its means too? We can, and here’s how.
We have to acknowledge that government spending is the true tax rate. Milton Friedman, in his 1975 book “There’s No Such Thing as a Free Lunch,” wrote “Keep your eye on one thing and one thing only: how much government is spending, because that’s the true tax… The real problem is government spending. If that goes up, the taxes that you pay — whether they’re direct or hidden in inflation and lower productivity — those taxes will go up.”
Those taxes are deferred and must be paid by future generations. This is taxation without representation and a reason many are predicting future generations won’t be as well off as the current one for the first time in history. Deficit spending, outside of an emergency, is morally wrong. It is a moral imperative we balance the budget.
Government spending drives inflation. We can look at the Vietnam War when the “Great Society” spending drove inflation from 1.6% to 14.8%. Federal spending rose from 16.5% of GDP in 1965 to 21.4% in 1975. We can look at the current economic mess from the COVID-19 spending, especially the additional money printed in 2021 which drove inflation from 1.4% to 9.1%. We can look at post-World War II spending, where federal government spending dropped from 42% of GDP to 14%, and inflation dropped from 14.4% to 2.7%. Plus, it just makes economic sense, when the federal government is purchasing limited resources, the rest of us get priced out.
Cut red tape to increase tax receipts by eliminating burdensome, non-value-added expenses. As an industrial engineer, I know there’s waste even in the best-run private system. When I worked in manufacturing, I could streamline processes and easily cut 30% or more from expenses and still have a quality product. There are steps in every process that customers do not want to pay for, and so we cut them out. Customers cover the expenses of excessive regulations by paying higher prices. American businesses pay more to create products, driving down profits (and taxes on profit) by having to cover the cost of compliance. It is a losing proposition. The federal government can increase its revenue by cutting red tape.
Critics will argue that immediate budget balance would be too disruptive. However, as economist Thomas Sowell pointed out, “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” The trade-off we face today is between temporary adjustment difficulties and permanent economic decline. The longer we wait, the more painful the eventual adjustment will be. We must pay a price from breaking the laws of economics, it is better that the generation who allowed the debt to balloon face that consequence than our innocent children.
As DOGE has discovered, it is likely that temporary adjustment won’t actually hurt as much we imagine. It’s been successful enough that states across the country are mimicking the move, including our own state.
Think back to 2019. Do you think our government was wisely spending money in 2019? No. 2019’s actual federal government spending was $4.4 trillion. In 2024, the Federal Government collected $4.92 trillion. Now our payments for the debt have ballooned, which would drive up that 2019 number. CBO reports that in 2019 the federal government spent $375 billion on debt service, compared to $882 billion in 2024 which is a $513 billion increase.
That number will continue to increase, unless we balance the budget. Those who have robbed the taxpayer will call a balanced budget austerity measures, but the rest of us will call it common sense. Congress must pass a budget that does not exceed $5 trillion in 2026 — and even that is probably too large.
As James Madison wrote in the Federalist Papers, “A people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power which knowledge gives.”
The knowledge we need today is clear: our current fiscal path is unsustainable, the solutions are available, and the time for action is now. The choice between fiscal responsibility and national decline isn’t a choice at all — it’s an imperative that demands immediate action. Congress must pass a budget that balances in 2026. Interest rates will then drop. The cost of servicing our national debt will drop, and we will have revenue to pay down our national debt.
The question isn’t whether we can afford to balance the budget immediately; it’s whether we can afford not to. Every day of delay adds to the burden future generations must bear and weakens America’s position in an increasingly competitive world. The time for 10-year plans and gradual adjustments has passed. The moment for decisive action is here.