The average American household forks over more than $26,000 to Uncle Sam every single year. That's a lot of cash, but the bulk of it isn't spent on national defense, infrastructure repair, or law enforcement.
As The Daily Signal reports, one category dominates over half of the federal budget each year.
In reality, health entitlements—Medicare, Medicaid, Obamacare—and Social Security are the largest and fastest growing programs. Unless Congress fixes these four programs, they—and the ever-growing interest payments on the national debt—will consume every dollar of taxes paid by 2041. That leaves no money for anything else. Uncle Sam couldn’t spend a penny on defense, food assistance, highways, or education without driving the country further into debt.
And those numbers don't look any better up close:
Right now, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare subsidies account for more than a quarter (28.8%) of all federal spending. Ten years from now, they’re projected to gobble up more than a third of the budget.
Meanwhile, Social Security, the single largest federal program, accounts for roughly a quarter of all federal spending all by itself. Its trust funds already pay out more than they take in, and its finances will only deteriorate faster as more and more boomers retire.
The Social Security trustees project that unless Congress implements much-needed reforms, the program will run out of reserve funds by 2034, potentially triggering a 23% cut in benefits.
We owe it to our children and grandchildren to force Congress to clean up this mess. But voting in new representatives hasn't solved the problem.
We need a solution that doesn't rely on campaign promises and big-money lobbyists. We need a way for the people and the states to step in, and a Convention of States gives us just that.
Article V of the Constitution allows the states to call a Convention to propose constitutional amendments. These amendments can enshrine in our founding document the principles of limited government and responsible spending by mandating a balanced budget, capping taxation, and limiting spending.
Only with pressure from outside the beltway will Washington make any real steps at entitlement reform. The Founders gave us a way to exert that pressure, and now we just have to use it.
Sign the Petition below to get involved!
