Chasing the Pig in the Pasture of the Golden Calf

It would be more fun to comment on the antics of the ongoing 2025 North Dakota legislative session. Proposals to make “That Jew” the official king of North Dakota? Will being mentioned in the North Dakota Century Code make him more divine? Isn’t outlawing fluoride just economic development for dentists?

More relevant to our actual lives is the frenetic agenda of the federal executive branch. Its stated agenda is cutting waste and abuse. That agenda, as stated, is about as controversial as curing diseases. Let’s look beyond the headline, however, and dig a little deeper.

What will be the actual effect of cutting out “waste and abuse” if our national leaders ignore Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid as untouchables—which, in fact, is being done? Over the short term, that is smart politics. Just imagine the uproar if those three golden calves were no longer worshiped.

According to the February 11, 2025, edition of The Wall Street Journal, from last September through last month, Social Security spending is up 7%, Medicare spending is up 5%, and Medicaid spending is up 9%. Obviously, those spending increases exceed the present rate of inflation.

To add insult to injury, during that same time period, there was a 13% increase in payments by the federal government toward the national debt. That debt payment exceeded the 8% increase in Department of Defense expenses during the same period.

The Wall Street Journal compared the executive branch’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) agenda to “like saying you want to go on a diet except for beer, chips, and ice cream sundaes.” It further accused DOGE of “only nibbling at the edges of Washington’s spending problem.”

Sadly, history has proven that tax decreases, although they give a short-term caffeine high to the economy, do not pay for themselves in the long run. It is just a matter of time before interest on the federal debt becomes the federal government’s main expense. Try that at home.

More revenue is needed to pay for our golden calves unless they are cut. The brutal truth is that without cuts to these three golden calves, tax increases will be required to pay for them.

The public wants it both ways. It hates both cuts to its golden calves and tax increases. Eventually, tough choices will need to be made.

Can one get elected by telling the truth? Can the public handle the truth? America was founded on a dream. Are we now living in fantasy land instead?

Neither political party is innocent. Neither are we.