This is a great column. In the past few years I’ve come around to supporting the Cato Institute position that “the size of government is best measured by the level of spending and regulation. Reducing tax revenues only shifts part of the burden of government spending to future generations.”
The problem is that when you deficit spend, you disguise the real cost of government services – offering services as a “loss leader” to get customers in the door and then ultimately charging their children and grandchildren full price plus interest.
Instead, if we paid for today’s services today the public would know what it really costs for healthcare, social security, education, road construction, etc. It is only by knowing the true cost of services, will voters be able to decide what services they want and are willing to pay for. Perhaps if we had to foot the bill today, we might be demanding less of our government.
