tax cuts that are not matched by spending cuts actually result in increased government spending – for the citizenry as a whole, the pain of payment for products received has been eliminated. When we receive government services without paying their full cost, we consume more such services. If every spending initiative had to be matched by a tax hike or cut elsewhere in the budget, we would end up behaving much more frugally. But starving the beast just makes us more profligate.
From How starving the beast makes us fat
Worth a read. We have moved from impulse buying at the supermarket to impulse government in Washington.
