From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   The Data Prove Government Is Spending Too Much   
   By Grover Norquist and Vance Ginn, Oct. 3, 2023, WSJ   
   The U.S. national debt recently passed $33 trillion, more than 120% of gross   
   domestic product. Left-wing politicians assert that Americans are undertaxed,   
   but the data show that the government spends too much.   
      
   Americans for Tax Reform launched the Sustainable Budget Project in September   
   to document the rise in government spending over the past decade. The results   
   are clear: Overspending is the problem.   
      
   Between 2013 and 2022, aggregate annual spending by the 50 state governments,   
   excluding federal funds, increased 51.7%. Total annual federal spending rose   
   69.4% during the decade, more than three times as fast as the 21.6% increase   
   in the rate of    
   population growth plus inflation. If government grows faster than this rate,   
   then it is growing faster than what the average taxpayer can afford.   
      
   Had the federal government limited the growth in spending to a maximum of the   
   population growth rate plus inflation during that decade, in 2022 the federal   
   government would have spent $1.6 trillion less than it did, resulting in at   
   least a $200 billion    
   surplus. If the federal government had done this over the past two decades,   
   the national debt would have increased by less than $500 billion instead of   
   $19 trillion.   
      
   If state governments had limited spending growth to the rate of population   
   growth plus inflation during the last decade, they would have spent $1.39   
   trillion in 2022, $344 billion less than the $1.74 trillion they actually   
   spent.   
      
   Had federal and state governments simply grown no faster than the rate of   
   population growth plus inflation, taxpayers could have been spared at least $2   
   trillion in taxes and debt in 2022 and trillions of dollars more over time.   
   The U.S. hasn’t needed    
   drastic budget cuts, just slower, more sustainable debt growth.   
      
   Our project defines each state’s overspending problem by providing a   
   dollar-figure spending ceiling and allowing anyone to see how government   
   spending in a state has grown relative to the rate of population growth plus   
   inflation. It will publish and    
   promote an annual benchmark spending level for every state, which lawmakers   
   must not exceed if they want to keep state spending in check.   
      
   Limiting state spending to the Sustainable Budget Project benchmark isn’t   
   impossible. Lawmakers in more states are beginning to implement the sorts of   
   structural reforms necessary to slow the rate of government spending to a   
   sustainable clip. During    
   the past decade, Colorado and Texas have demonstrated that this can be done.   
      
   Colorado spent a cumulative $12.8 billion less over the past decade than what   
   could have been available under the benchmark. State lawmakers could have   
   dramatically cut the state’s individual income tax. Instead, there is a push   
   in Colorado to raise    
   taxes and destroy the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the state’s   
   constitutional requirement that all tax increases be subject to voter approval   
   and revenue collected in excess of the state spending cap be refunded to   
   taxpayers.   
      
   Texas spent $16.4 billion less than the benchmark over the past decade,   
   savings that could have been used to eliminate its gross-receipts-style   
   franchise tax and other bad taxes. Rather than continuing to keep state   
   spending in check, Texas lawmakers    
   instead passed the largest state budget in the state’s history this year.   
      
   Excessive spending at the federal, state and local levels of government   
   deserves more attention. Tax hikes are easy to identify, but there has been no   
   objective, binary metric to determine whether a state government spends too   
   much. By focusing on the    
   rate of population growth plus inflation, the Sustainable Budget Project   
   provides such a standard.   
      
   Governors and state legislators need to implement reforms and practice   
   restraint to slow the steep upward trajectory of government spending. That   
   lawmakers in large, politically important states have already demonstrated   
   this ability has shown their    
   counterparts in other states and in Washington that sustainable budgeting is   
   possible. With more modest growth in state government spending, lawmakers can   
   lower taxes and Americans can keep more of what they earn.   
      
   Mr. Norquist is president of Americans for Tax Reform. Mr. Ginn, a senior   
   fellow at ATR, served as chief economist of the White House’s Office of   
   Management and Budget, 2019-20.   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-data-prove-government-is-spendi   
   g-too-much-taxes-inflation-colorado-b4ed23bd   
      
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