Earlier this year, Gallup pollsters asked Americans how much they worry about the federal government’s deficit and debt. Seventy-seven percent worried about our nation’s red ink “a great deal” or “a fair amount.”
This result was not unusual. Every year since 2011, between 63 and 87 percent of the individuals polled have said they were worried.
Yet, elected officials have not responded by cutting spending or raising taxes. Mostly, they have engaged in theatrical battles over the debt limit and annual spending bills and then enacted legislation that made our nation’s finances worse.
America’s debt was around $12 trillion in 2012. Now it is $35 trillion.
This is a distressing state of affairs and a peculiar one. The theory of representative government holds that elected officials want to get elected, and that to do so they will respond to a majority — so long as what the people want is not utterly outrageous or unconstitutional.
Indeed, this is how it works in representative democracies worldwide, according to one study. Voters punish the leaders of parties that fail to perform fiscally. But the........