The U.S. federal government blew the budget once again, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) recap of the fiscal year that ended September 30. The red ink for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 totaled $2.0 trillion, a 12% increase over FY2025. The government spent $7.4 trillion and collected $5.4 trillion, meaning that one out of every four dollars it spent added to the deficit.

In nominal terms, government revenues grew by 3% in FY2026, compared to FY2025, but government spending grew by 6%, the CBO found.

“Six-plus years into an economic expansion, the U.S. is running annual deficits normally seen only during recessions and wars,” The Wall Street Journal lamented. The hemorrhaging red ink “alarms policymakers but hasn’t moved them to change course.”

There is no good reason for this elevated level of deficit spending. Congress has made minimal budget changes to pay for the Iran war, and interest payments on current debt have risen with interest rates. But this perpetual deficit spending is simply the new, post-COVID baseline; indeed, the trend toward bloated peacetime budgets dates back to the beginning of the century.

Anyone who possesses basic common sense will instinctively recognize this condition as alarming, and it is. But more than that, indulging in perpetual deficit spending is downright immoral, and eventually the consequences will become unavoidable.

Inherent in the concept of borrowing money is “the intention of returning the same,” usually with interest, as the Merriam-Webster Dictionary puts it. Money that is received with no intention to return it is not a loan but a gift (if the other party agrees) or a theft (if the other party does not agree). The transaction is as follows: “I receive X amount of money today. After a defined period, I will repay X amount plus Y amount as interest.”

From this, it is evident that loans always favor the lender over the borrower, as the blessing states, “You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and you shall rule over many nations, but they shall not rule over you” (Deuteronomy 15:6).

Because borrowing is inherently disadvantageous, prudent fiscal planners should only rely upon it in a limited range of circumstances (e.g., desperate need, large capital purchases, business ventures that will turn an expected profit larger than the interest). If someone uses debt to cover the difference between ordinary income and ordinary expenses, that person will never be in a better position to repay both the loan and the interest; he must either restrict his spending or find a way to make more money.

But the U.S. federal government has come to treat “deficit spending” as an everyday occurrence, signaling that it never intends to fully pay the money back.

It is true that, to date, the Treasury Department always honors each individual contractual obligation. But, under a profligate Congress, this requires us to borrow simply to repay each loan. It borrowed X amount from Peter, promising to repay X+Y. It repaid X+Y to Peter, but only by borrowing X+Y from Paul, to whom it promised to repay X+Y+Z. This vicious cycle continues, with no indication that Congress ever seeks to rein in spending enough to cancel out the original debt of amount X.

Proverbs cautions us that such duplicitous financial dealing will eventually lead to regret. “Bread gained by deceit is sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth will be full of gravel” (Proverbs 20:17).

For now, the U.S. federal government maintains a luxurious array of social entitlements: Social Security pensions, government-run health insurance, etc. It can manage to do so while America’s credit rating remains strong, but creditors have already begun raising doubts. If the government ever fails to repay its debts, the money will dry up, and all the Americans who adjusted their lives to depend on government largesse will suddenly find themselves high and dry.

Repaying one loan with another can kick the can down the road, but sooner or later, the bill will come due.

The government is taking on all this debt for no other purpose than to enable the current society to seem richer than it truly is. “One pretends to be rich, yet has nothing; another pretends to be poor, yet has great wealth” (Proverbs 13:7). In the latter lies true wisdom.

The effect of this deficit spending is a whopping financial crisis stored up for our children, or for their children. We are condemning them to either a crushing burden of taxation and austerity, or to the serious devaluation of the dollar. The Israelites complained, “The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge” (Jeremiah 31:29; Ezekiel 18:2). They blamed God, when this condition was the result of their own poor choices. And, while God promised to reverse this condition for the children of Israel, America has no such promise.

Wise rulers sacrifice their own luxury to bring justice to the helpless. “It is not for kings to drink wine, or for rulers to take strong drink, lest they drink and forget what has been decreed and pervert the rights of all the afflicted” (Proverbs 30:4-5). Rather, they are told, “Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy” (Proverbs 31:8-9).

The Americans who will suffer most from the government’s perpetual deficit spending are also the ones least able to speak up in their own cause — for the simple reason that they have not yet been born and come of age. Therefore, they need those with voices now to speak up on their behalf and urge the government to correct this injustice against future generations.

The U.S. government may think that it can simply invent wealth out of thin air by perpetually “borrowing” money it never intends to pay back. The truth is, “Wealth gained hastily will dwindle, but whoever gathers little by little will increase it” (Proverbs 13:11).