In the conversation around the US national debt, the process around what the government spends money on and how is often crowded out by conversations around what spending programs we should add. For Maya MacGuinaes of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, the current process is one that prioritizes consumption over investment, and how money is often allocated based on who shouts the loudest, as opposed to who needs it the most.
In this episode, we discuss how our spending priorities have caused childhood poverty to rise while elderly poverty has fallen, how expert panels might be better suited for crafting budgets than those seeking reelection, and how increasing spending without increasing the taxes to pay for it is too politically expedient a strategy to pass up.