Cost of Government Day (COGD)
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Towards an Earlier Cost of Government Day

The fact that Cost of Government Day has moved to July 16, which is the fifth latest this day has been in the last 32 years, is a troublesome development, and, if left unanswered, the growing fiscal challenges would move the date even later into the year.

On the other hand, with the enormous spending savings from the above entitlement reforms, federal spending on future interest expenditures incurred to finance projected exploding deficits on our current course would be dramatically reduced as well.  A final component would be to limit remaining federal expenditures to grow no faster than the rate of GDP, which is essentially what we have done over the last 50 years.  A cap on the growth of federal discretionary spending would help to achieve this goal.
               
The end result of all of the above reforms would be that total federal spending would be reduced well below the current, long term 20 percent of GDP, rather than doubled.  This is a detailed, comprehensive strategy for achieving smaller, limited government, which would ultimately lead to an earlier Cost of Government Day.

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