Govzilla by Stephen Moore

Author:Stephen Moore
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Published: 2021-12-15T20:18:54+00:00

The small spikes seen in the 1910s and the 1940s of course are attributable to the first and second World Wars, but the continual increases since the latter of those two present a different pattern. Since the years between the two World Wars, the federal government has systematically eroded the Constitutional protections that our founders enshrined against runaway government and set record after record for massive government intervention into the private sector.

This new level of intervention is highlighted by the two spikes in federal outlays around 2008 and 2020. The first spike correlates to the federal government’s heavy-handed response to the financial crisis of 2007–08 in which Congress provided “stimulus” funding that was, at the time, record-breaking. The second spike is still occurring. Since spring 2020, Congress has appropriated nearly $6 trillion in an attempt to address the recession caused by COVID-19 lockdowns.

To make matters worse, President Biden’s budget request for FY 2022 calls for over $6 trillion in federal outlays. With the worst of COVID-19 presumably behind us, President Biden’s proposed budget would slightly decrease federal outlays only because of the expiration of temporary COVID-19-related programs like the Paycheck Protection Program. Instead, President Biden would have federal outlays significantly exceed pre-COVID-19 levels by dramatically increasing spending on existing social programs coupled with costly new social programs.

In particular, President Biden’s so-called “Build Back Better” plan, which encompasses the American Jobs Plan and American Families Plan, would dramatically increase the size and scope of the federal government. Proposals like free four-year higher education, universal preschool, costly investments in unproven technologies like electric vehicles, and promises to “redress historic inequities” in every aspect of American life threaten to balloon federal spending to emergency COVID-19 levels indefinitely.

This general trend toward fiscal insolvency is also born out per capita. As figure 3-2 shows, federal outlays are rapidly approaching $18,000 per person. As we continue to spend recklessly and are forced to finance future debt, that number will continue to grow.

The federal government spent $43 per person in 1800

The federal government spent $225 per person in 1900

The federal government spent $9,574 per person in 2000

The federal government spent $20,633 per person in 2020

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