Editorial: The sea of red ink continues to grow in DC

As Democrats and Republicans dig in during the latest regime shutdown the Congressional Budget Office published its monthly spending summary on Wednesday projecting that the federal budget deficit for fiscal will run trillion The good news is that the amount of red ink shrunk by about billion from fiscal The bad news is that this is considered good news The national debt now rushes toward trillion The analysis also notes that interest paid on the debt topped trillion for the first time in fiscal which ended Oct The deficit is now running roughly of gross domestic product a number never before hit during peacetime save for the pandemic And once again the numbers reveal that the nation has a spending predicament not a revenue shortage Tax receipts in fiscal soared by billion but increased outlays gobbled it all up While the deficit didn t rise from last year it didn t fall either and we continue to borrow far too much Maya MacGuineas president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget reported in a comment We are on track to borrow nearly trillion per year for the next decade How can anyone think this is sustainable It is against this backdrop that Congress is deadlocked on a continuing resolution to fund the leadership Democrats refuse to provide the votes to keep Washington open unless Republicans agree to make permanent billions in temporary vitality care spending intended to ease COVID s economic disruption But the pandemic ended two years ago As the latest deficit numbers show responsible fiscal initiative doesn t involve etching in stone stopgap safety net measures implemented during a once-in-a-lifetime event Meanwhile Congress fiddles while structural defects in Medicare and Social Shield threaten to engulf the programs Current figures have the reserves in the Social Guard trust fund running dry by with Medicare following suit just two years later President Donald Trump has made headway cutting spending at various federal agencies Spending at the Development Department fell by billion according to the CBO summary More must be done Ultimately however Trump and Congress must get serious about addressing the debt and shoring up foundering entitlement programs Procrastination in the name of political survival is hardly the approach of serious statesmen and stateswomen When the shutdown ends Congress should at a minimum empanel a fiscal commission to concoct a road map that does what our elected authorities refuse to do set the nation on a sustainable financial program Las Vegas Review-Journal Tribune News Utility Editorial cartoon by Chip Bok Creators Syndicate