Where has all the money gone? . . .

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No one really knows. Few seem to care.

I left the private sector in 2010 to campaign for the U.S. Senate. I began serving in 2011, when the country’s total national debt was $14 trillion. At $28 trillion, it is now double that, with trillions more guaranteed to be added over the next few years.

Taking credit for the good and denying responsibility for the bad is a bipartisan habit. The first five Covid relief packages prove this. In order of passage, these bills authorized $8.3 billion, $192 billion, $2.2 trillion, $484 billion and $868 billion. Add the estimated cost of tax credits, and the amount of Covid-19 relief authorized in 2020 totaled approximately $4 trillion—18.7% of 2019’s GDP. . . .

Demonstrating a small measure of restraint, the $868 billion bill, passed in December, actually repurposed $600 billion unspent from the previous bills. When Mr. Biden’s American Rescue Plan was passed, approximately $1 trillion remained unspent from the first five relief bills. But that didn’t restrain Democrats from authorizing $1.9 trillion more.

At the beginning of the pandemic-induced recession, it was imperative that Congress act swiftly and massively to prevent financial market collapse and provide help to individuals and businesses harmed by shutdowns.  . . .

Once spending fever broke out, it took only a few days for that to balloon into the $2.2 trillion Cares Act.

No one will ever know how much was disbursed to people and businesses who didn’t need it.  . . .

What about the devastating impact of ultralow interest rates or inflation on people living on fixed incomes and at the bottom of the economic pyramid?

Mr. Biden is now talking about trillions more for infrastructure, green energy and “equity”—whatever that means. I’m not sure how much infrastructure would actually be built with these trillions, but I’m certain that government would grow and become far more intrusive. History proves that would not be good for individual liberty, economic opportunity or American families.

President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society programs were passed on the promise they would reduce poverty and strengthen the fabric of society. Although it is impossible to spend trillions and not do some good, data suggest these programs also did a great deal of harm. . . .

Fifty years later, 40% of all births occur outside marriage, deaths by suicide and drug overdose are rising, society is being torn apart by divisive forces, and many believe we need to spend trillions more to redress long-held grievances. It sure doesn’t feel like we’re better off. Rather than decreasing dependency, I would argue the Great Society increased it by weakening American families.

Politicians of both parties whistle past this societal wreckage as they look for new excuses to spend even more money we don’t have. They will celebrate their well-intentioned efforts and ignore the harmful consequences. What will those long-term consequences be? How will debt be paid? . . .

What do you think will be the long-term consequences of this surmounting debt? Why is it going unnoticed? Discuss in the comments below!

(Excerpt from WSJ Opinion. Article by Ron Johnson. Photo Credit: Canva.)