U.S. Government Spending Cut To Lowest Level In Decades; National Debt Rises Anyway

CNN Money, citing the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), reported on Monday that within 10 years, defense and domestic spending is on pace to decline to the lowest level as a percentage of GDP dating back to 1962.

The problem is the reduction in spending will come from "discretionary" aspects of the budget, including military, national parks, museums and food safety related initiatives. On the other hand, spending on the real debt drivers (or "entitlement" programs), such as healthcare programs, social security and interest on debt, hasn't received the level of attention it warrants.

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In fact, within 20 years, the CBO said that nearly every single penny of tax revenue the government will collect will only be sufficient to cover entitlement spending and interest payment on debts.

Meanwhile, CNN Money added that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton have proposed a solution on how to deal with the alarming rates of entitlement spending.

Clinton has proposed tax hikes on the wealthy and promises to expand social security benefits, but also favors boosting payroll taxes on the rich to help pay for that expansion.

Trump's promise of cutting "waste, fraud and abuse" within the federal government is an attractive slogan and an outsider businessmen could bring a new perspective to government spending — but this remains a promise that hasn't been fully backed up with examples.

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