Noriega: Congress needs to spend more money
Apr 23, 2025, 1:00 PM
Editor’s note: This is an editorial piece. An editorial, like a news article, is based on fact but also shares opinions. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and are not associated with our newsroom.
SALT LAKE CITY — Congress needs to spend more money.
You must be saying to yourself, “No way I read that right”.
Over the last five years, Congress has overspent your tax dollars by $10,811,782,000,000 or nearly $11 trillion. You really want Congress to spend more?
Yes. At least Utahns do.
The recent polling from the Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics breaks it down like this:
Too much, too little, or right amount.
Here’s where Utahns think we are spending “just the right amount” or “too little” on government programs:
- Social Security 90% (just right/too little)
- Medicare 88% (just right/too little)
- Military 78% (just right/too little)
- Border Security 81% (just right/too little)
Similar numbers for education, Medicaid, assistance to the poor and federal law enforcement agencies.
The only program that Utahns feel can get a haircut — foreign aid, and even that was close. Just 56% of Utahns agreed that the foreign aid program is bloated.
Are we apathetic about the $36.2 trillion in national debt or the $1.8 trillion in annual deficits?
No.
A recent Economist/YouGov poll says 71% of Americans are “very or somewhat concerned” about the size of the federal budget deficit.
Broadly speaking, Republicans, Democrats and independents are on the same page; spending more money than we bring in is bad economic policy for your family budget as well as the nation’s budget.
Why is Utah at such a disconnect with nationwide polling?
Specifics.
We’re tough until we have to choose which program we’d cut.
We know that Social Security is headed off a financial cliff, insolvent in eight years, but are we willing to cut grandma’s Social Security payment? Will we ask people in their 50s to work an extra two, three or five years before they retire?
Let’s look at the military, with an annual budget of $850 billion, could that get a cut? Not when Hill Air Force Base has an economic impact of $11 billion in Utah. Could we get along with fewer F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters and their $110 million per plane price tag? As of 2024, the United States operates 630 F-35s with plans to buy 1,800 more, but when it’s our F-35s — hands off!
Speaking in generalities is easy — it’s the gory details where it gets hard.
Dave Noriega is the co-host of Dave & Dujanovic on KSL NewsRadio. Follow him on Facebook and X.
Related: Report says average Utahn pays 1/3 of income to taxes
