Fox News: The United States will drown in debt with a deficit of 40 trillion dollars

According to Ted Jenkin who said on Fox News, that reckless spending, waste, and a lack of political will on both sides of the aisle will plunge the United States deeper into debt, and the solution, unfortunately, is a vicious cycle.

According to Jenkin, Americans seem to be committing more waste, fraud, and abuse in the federal government every day.

Unfortunately, America is on an unsustainable fiscal path, and the numbers don’t lie.

The national debt has surpassed $36.5 trillion, with no signs of slowing down.

Both parties are complicit, but it’s the left’s continued push for government expansion, social programs, and reckless spending that has put us on a path toward an inevitable $40 trillion debt.

These programs collectively cost about $1.67 trillion a year, or 24 percent of the federal budget.

Medicare provides health coverage for seniors, while Medicaid helps low-income individuals.

Rising health care costs and an aging population make it difficult to limit spending in this area.

Social Security accounts for 21% of the budget, with annual spending of about $1.5 trillion.

It provides retirement and disability benefits to eligible citizens.

Given its role as a primary source of income for many retirees, any attempts to cut benefits face significant political resistance.

Here’s the part of the problem that explains why $40 trillion in debt is inevitable.

Interest payments on the national debt are $1.1 trillion a year, or 15.6% of the budget.

As the debt grows and interest rates rise, those interest payments are like a family with runaway credit card debt on a one-way street toward bankruptcy.

The defense budget is about $884 billion, or 12.5% of federal spending.

This includes funding for military operations, personnel, equipment, and research.

National security concerns and geopolitical dynamics make defense cuts politically sensitive.

When you add all four of these items together, they make up about 73% of the total fiscal budget.

It certainly makes sense to shake the federal government upside down like you’re looking for coins in a couch because this is the beginning of a reduction in overall government spending.

However, that won’t make up for the money we still need to run these three major programs, and with interest rates still high, our debt is sinking us deeper into the hole.

Cutting spending in these areas is fraught with challenges. Health care and Social Security are vital to millions of people, and any cuts could have broad social impacts.

Defense spending is closely tied to national security, making cuts politically contentious.

Interest payments are mandatory; as debts mount, these payments increase, creating a vicious cycle.

Federal revenue is currently projected to be just over $5 trillion, and despite the hype around tariffs and other taxes, we actually get revenue from three sources:

These taxes contribute about 51.6% of total federal revenue. When you hear the slogan “tax the rich,” given that nearly 50% of Americans pay no federal income tax at all, it’s clear that the main way to raise revenue is to get people who earn a lot of money to pay more.

Raising income tax rates is politically challenging and can stifle economic growth because the highest incomes are earned by those who start businesses and create jobs for Americans.

Payroll taxes, which account for about 33% of federal revenue, fund social insurance programs like Social Security and Medicare.

This largely includes the 6.2% you pay for Social Security, the 1.45% for Medicare, and unemployment taxes.

Various proposals have been discussed over the past 25 years on how to reform income from these sources, including imposing an unlimited tax on your income for Social Security, increasing the Social Security tax rate over the next 10 years to 7.2%, and extending the natural retirement age for those born in 1980 and later to age 70.

It’s unfortunate that people complain that President Donald Trump’s corporate tax cut will hurt the economy.

The fact is that corporate taxes only account for 9% of federal revenue.

Even if corporate tax rates were to return to 35%, the tax revenue gained from this change would pale in comparison to making the United States more competitive for companies that want to do business in our country.

Expanding revenues from all of these sources is problematic.

Higher individual taxes can discourage consumer spending and saving.

Higher payroll taxes impose a burden on both employees and employers, which can affect employment rates, and higher corporate taxes can push companies to move their operations abroad, which can reduce the domestic tax base.

So far, the Treasury estimates that the savings will exceed $100 billion.

The savings will come from asset sales, contract cancellations and renegotiations, elimination of improper payments, cancellation of grants, interest savings, programming changes, and workforce deductions.

Jenkin said, “We don’t underestimate the fact that $100 billion is significant, but it’s far from closing the gap in the $2 trillion fiscal deficit we are currently running, half of which is net interest on the deb”.

One thing Americans hate most is hearing bad news, which is why we elect new presidents with high approval ratings until they rush to make tough changes.

But no one likes tough changes, so approval ratings drop and politicians try to adapt to the changes in order to become more popular with the American people.

Taxing the rich will never be enough; Even if the government confiscated all of America’s billionaires’ wealth, it would make only a small dent in the national debt.

The only real solution is to cut spending and raise taxes at the same time, but the political will on either side of the aisle doesn’t allow that.

Any attempt to rein in fiscal spending is met with fierce opposition from special interest groups and politicians, media outrage, and accusations of heavy-handedness on both sides.

Ultimately, the United States is fast approaching $40 trillion in debt, and the consequences could be dire.

Inflation, recession, and a decline in global standing are just a few of the risks we face if we don’t get our fiscal house in order.