EDITORIAL: A dose of tough medicine that the nation needs

In one respect, the soaring national debt is a lot like the weather. Everybody complains about it, but nobody does anything about it.

Nobody, that is, but Sen. Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican.

Eight years ago, Sen. Paul introduced his “Penny Plan Balanced Budget,” an effort to balance the federal books within five years. Under his proposal, the government would have spent one penny less for every dollar it spent in fiscal 2018 for each of the next five years “at which point balance is reached.” Spending would then have grown at 1 percent annually.

The plan did not touch Social Security and left it up to individual agencies or Congress to make the budget adjustments. Sen. Paul also noted that total spending would have still increased by 14.6 percent over a 10-year window. “Only in Washington,” his news release stated, could such a spending bump “be characterized as a cut.”

Needless to say, Sen. Paul’s proposal was relegated to the circular file in a town where elected officials have developed a deep addiction to spending other people’s money without limitation as a means of self preservation. Eight years later, the debt has skyrocketed from $21.5 trillion to nearly $39 trillion.

But Sen. Paul remains undaunted. Over the past decade, he has continued to present balanced-budget plans, the latest coming this year with what is now called his Six Penny Plan, a more aggressive approach necessitated by the nation’s worsening fiscal condition brought about by the refusal of Congress to restrain itself.

Under the proposal, “the first year would result in spending at 94 percent of current levels, with annual reductions of 6 percent continuing until balance is achieved in year five. After the fifth year, spending would be allowed to rise at the same pace as revenues over the next five years.”

Democrats will no doubt label Sen. Paul’s efforts as heartless and cruel and ignoring revenues “lost” because of GOP tax cuts that allow people to keep more of their own money. Yet at least he is attempting to highlight an issue that few people inside the Beltway take seriously. Besides, we’re still waiting for the progressive tax hike plan that pencils out as an antidote to the country’s sea of red ink.

The National Taxpayers Union credits Sen. Paul with at least “trying to get our fiscal house in order,” acknowledging that his budget outline “would give a dose of tough medicine to deal with our nation’s budget ills, but it is medicine our nation needs.”

Republicans should embrace Sen. Paul’s proposal as a way to move the conversation forward before the nation sails any further into the darkening fiscal storm clouds.