But great as our tax burden is, it has not kept pace with public spending. For decades, we have piled deficit upon deficit, mortgaging our future and our children’s future for the temporary convenience of the present. To continue this long trend is to guarantee tremendous social, cultural, political and economic upheavals. You and I as individuals can, by borrowing, live beyond our means—but for only a limited period of time. Why, then, should we think that collectively, as a nation, we are not bound by that same limitation?

—Ronald Reagan. First Inaugural Address, January 20, 1981.

Deficit spending wickedly burdens unborn children with the current generation’s degeneracy.

This article is an extract from the book ‘Principles of Good Government’ by Matthew Bransgrove