Commentary
President Joe Biden’s budget predictably has sparked intense debate. Opinions on overall spending, taxes, equity, and deficits fill financial columns.
To see what is happening to the nation’s finances, it helps to step away from these politically motivated criticisms and praise of the president’s proposals and instead look at the basic structure of government finances. There it becomes clear that no small modification can make a difference in the picture of growing deficits. Nor can worries over “fair shares” or efforts to trim waste brighten the financial picture appreciably (though such questions are imperative in other respects)….