By Steve Brawner, © 2018 by Steve Brawner Communications, Inc.

There’s been good news and bad news lately when it comes to the way Congress spends your money (and your children’s and grandchildren’s). Which do you want first?

Let’s start with the good news.

On Tuesday, the Senate sent to the House an $854 billion bill to fund the Department of Defense, the Department of Health and Human Services, and other agencies. The House is expected to approve the bill next week.

How is spending $854 billion good news? Because Congress is actually doing its job in a somewhat orderly fashion by passing budget bills before the fiscal year begins. It’s also doing it in time to avert a government shutdown that would occur next month.

That counts as an improvement. In recent years, Congress has lurched from one manufactured crisis to another, often passing enormous up-or-down “omnibus” packages after the new fiscal year has already begun. 

That’s no way for any entity to operate – government, business or household. It’s the equivalent of you and me letting our bills pile up past the due date and then paying just enough all at once to keep the creditors at bay. The next month, we do the same thing without even trying to examine our spending habits.

The first step to fiscal sanity is returning to regular order. The fact that Congress is at least trying to do that counts as good news.

The bad news is that, despite the growing economy, this year’s budget deficit will be even bigger than last year’s. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) recently reported that the deficit for the 2017-18 fiscal year’s first 11 months was $898 billion. In comparison, it was $674 billion during the first 11 months of the previous fiscal year. Put another way, so far this year the government has spent $2,733 more than it collected for every American man, woman and child.

All of that is being added to the national debt. It’s now $21.5 trillion, or $65,424 for each of us.

Earlier this year, CBO estimated this year’s budget deficit would be about $800 billion. To reach that, September would have to be a surplus month, which could happen. Regardless, by about next year we’re likely returning to the $1 trillion annual deficits last seen during the Great Recession. This time, however, those deficits are occurring during an economic expansion, when we ought to be using surpluses to pay down part of the debt we already have.

Moreover, that expansion started in June 2009, a long time ago. It’s only a matter of time before the economy cycles down. And when it does, those $1 trillion deficits will go up, up, up.

This year’s deficit was worsened because of spending increases and tax cuts enacted late last year and earlier this year. Spending has increased 7 percent – under a Republican president and a Republican-led Congress, it should be pointed out. Revenues have increased only 1 percent, and again that’s in the midst of a booming economy artificially inflated by deficit spending. Revenues would have been higher had Congress not cut taxes, though still not nearly enough to balance the budget.

You’d think these numbers would set off alarm bells in Congress. Instead, the House is planning to vote on another round of tax cuts that the Joint Committee on Taxation says would reduce revenues by another $657 billion over the next decade. Of course, these would not be accompanied by spending cuts. The tax cuts aren’t expected to pass the Senate – at least not yet. Still, the vote is another example of elected officials prioritizing short-term political gains over the long-term good.

To put it bluntly, the good economy we’re enjoying is partly the result of wealth we’ve stolen from our children and grandchildren. Supporters of current fiscal policies are using the Twitter hashtag #BetterOffNow this political season. Some of us undoubtedly are. But the unanswered question is, will future generations be #BetterOffThen?