On Monday, Senator Rand Paul presented a fresh proposal for balancing the federal budget within the next five years.
According to the U.S. Debt Clock, the national debt has now crossed $30 trillion, which is greater than the country’s annual output of economic activity by 143% and equals almost $243,000 in commitments for each taxpayer. I can still remember when this number was around $64,000 per household or per individual, I forget which one it was.
In reaction to this, Paul came out with his “Six Penny Plan,” which is a strategy that will last for five years and involves reducing federal spending by six cents for every dollar spent.
“We are now in a situation that a simple penny, two, three, or even a five pennies per-dollar reduction is insufficient to balance our budget. It requires six,” Paul said in a press release. “We cannot keep ignoring this problem at the expense of taxpayers, and my budget will put our nation on track to solve this crisis that Congress created.”
According to Fox Business, which was the first news outlet to get a copy of the research, the measure would result in a budget surplus of $65.8 billion by the end of the fiscal year 2027. Although it does not lay out specifics, the proposal would oblige members of Congress to consider within the framework.
The plan asks for reductions in spending across all spending areas with the exception of Social Security. After the amount of $5.9 trillion that is authorized for the fiscal year 2023, the framework for federal expenditure would decrease on a yearly basis rather than increasing taxes.
“Congress’s refusal to accept the responsibility to act as good stewards of American taxpayer dollars has caused our bleak financial position,” the release said. “Americans everywhere are feeling the effects of historical high inflation and sustaining labor and supply chain issues. Short-term political gains of the past, are in fact causing us harm now. Not to our children and grandchildren off in the future, but to us here today.”
It’s going to catch up at some point. It always does. If you’ve ever been largely in debt, then you know how it is. One day you’re adding a little more debt at a time, and it doesn’t affect much, but as it piles on and piles on, it gets harder and harder and finally there comes a breaking point.