FreedomWorks’ Written Statement on Federal Spending to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs

FreedomWorks has submitted the following statement for the record to the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, for their hearing entitled “Examining the Root Causes of America’s Unsustainable Fiscal Path.”

Of all the threats facing America in the 21st Century, none looms larger than the titanic deficit spending, national debt, and unfunded liabilities that challenge our economy’s dominance and our government’s solvency. A common refrain from Democrats on the campaign trail has been that the Trump-led “tax cuts for the rich” are to blame for the re-occurrence of trillion-dollar annual deficits and ballooning debts. To the contrary, the data plainly shows that tax revenues have continued to grow, as has economic output; whereas federal spending has continued to grow far faster than either GDP or revenue could even hope to keep up with.

An examination of the government’s own numbers shows that we are hemorrhaging money at such a rate that no tax hike could hope to stem the tide. While Congress fiddles with (and generally increases) discretionary spending every year, especially on defense, the mandatory welfare programs plus the interest on our debt now account for over 70 percent of each year’s expenditures. Without structural reform to stop the endless expansion of autopilot spending on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and the interest on our debt, America’s bills are going to come due in a way that will handicap prosperity and growth for generations to come.

You can read the full statement to the Senate Committee hearing, or download a PDF, below: