EDITORIAL: A fistful of IOUs

The Labor Day holiday looms. It’s an occasion when many hard-working Americans will proudly celebrate their daily efforts to provide the necessities for their loved ones.

But we toil not just to enjoy the fruits of our own labor or to pursue comfort and stability for our families. Indeed, a significant portion of what we earn now goes to feed a trillion-dollar spending machine in Washington, a massive monstrosity that ceaselessly piles financial commitments on top of taxpayers.

“The exposure of taxpayers to delinquencies and defaults on federal loans and guarantees has ballooned since 2009,” writes George Melloan in a recent op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. “Add to that the soaring national debt and the excessive obligations of federal entitlement programs and you have what some might call an ‘existential’ issue.”

As Mr. Melloan points out, the matter goes far beyond structurally unstable programs such as Social Security.

Take home ownership. Beltway politicians and bureaucrats, having apparently learned nothing from the recent housing crisis that triggered a market crash and pushed the country into recession, are once again ramping up federal involvement in the mortgage industry. In the event of another meltdown, taxpayers could face a tab running into the hundreds of billions of dollars.

Then there’s higher education. The Obama administration has essentially nationalized the student loan business and expanded loan-forgiveness programs. Default rates are increasing rapidly. Forbes estimates that taxpayers are on the hook for at least $170 billion over the next decade. If current trends continue, Mr. Melloan notes, “more taxes or more borrowing will be needed to cover some very large federal-budget costs.”

Nevertheless, Hillary Clinton has adopted the position of her socialist competitor in the primaries and now calls for making college “free.” Rest assured, this will require plenty of somebody else’s money.

Meantime, as Obamacare sputters along, proponents of the legislation assure us that “stabilization” mechanisms built into the law will “buffer” the insured from higher premiums. Translation: We’ve attached permanent IVs to taxpayers to keep the cash flowing.

Mr. Melloan doesn’t even mention the money promised to public employees under very generous state and local pension plans. Some estimates conclude that government retirement programs across the country are underfunded by as much as $4 trillion. Guess who’s on the hook for covering that gaping maw?

The Tax Foundation notes that Americans, in the aggregate, now spend more on taxes than they do on food, clothing and shelter combined. And that doesn’t reflect the trillions in future obligations that now bury Americans, young and old.

It’s no exaggeration to point out that Americans remain forever indebted to their elected officials. Literally.