My plan is to quit working and retire before age 50. That’s the result of many years of living debt-free in inexpensive states, investing money, and not spending money on entertainment, travel, etc. But young people aren’t going to be able to go that route. Not only are they borrowing and spending, but they are also voting for policies that will prevent them from ever being able to retire.

This story from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, for example, shows the result of voting for a big spending socialist.

According to final data from the Treasury Department, net interest costs reached $659 billion (2.5 percent of GDP) in fiscal year 2023, a $184 billion increase from the previous year. In this piece, we explain that:

• Interest costs nearly doubled over the past three years, from $345 billion in 2020 to $659 billion in 2023.
• Interest is now the fourth-largest government program, behind only Social Security, Medicare, and defense.
• The federal government in 2023 spent more on net interest than it did all spending on children, and it also spent more on interest than most major programs or program areas including Medicaid, veterans’ programs, food and nutrition programs, and education.

Interest is currently the fastest growing part of the federal budget. After growing from $221 billion in 2013 to $345 billion in 2020, it has nearly doubled to $659 billion in 2023. Relative to the economy, net interest costs grew from 1.6 percent of GDP in 2020 to 2.5 percent in 2023.

In the coming years, interest costs are likely to further explode. With interest rates at a 16-year high, current debt holdings originally borrowed in a low interest rate environment will increasingly be rolled over at much higher rates. Meanwhile, the federal government continues to add roughly $2 trillion per year to the national debt.

Why is this a problem? Well, it’s a problem because interest on our debt is so high, that it blocks spending on other government programs. The interest on the debt is such a big part of the budget, that there is no spending space left for discretionary spending. And eventually, that will impact non-discretionary spending, too. According to far-left CNN, Medicare’s trust fund will be gone by 2030, and the Social Security trust fund will be gone by 2033. That means those programs will be forced to cut spending. And those are the CBO estimates. I think those numbers are optimistic.

How will the government pay for all of this spending and debt? Why, by raising taxes on incomes, of course. And who will pay these higher taxes? Not me, I’ll be retired. The young people who think socialism is a great idea will be paying for it. They ought to know that, but instead, they only worry about climate change, gay marriage, abortion and infanticide.

Another thing that young people who vote Democrat support is open borders. They love the idea of people being let into the country, even though they will use more in social services and government welfare than they pay in taxes. It sounds so generous, but young people don’t realize that they are the ones who will be paying for this “generosity” for the rest of their working lives.

According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform, the Biden administration let in 9 million illegal immigrants during his term. These are not people who are here legally on work permits, these are people who crossed illegally. That means that they could not meet the legal requirements for coming into the country on a work permit – speaking English, having an education, having work experience, etc. Who is going to pay for their educations, health care, policing, etc? The young people who voted for Biden will.

Young people are going to be working just as hard as their parents did, but with much less wealth to show for it. That’s the cost of the “generosity” they vote for when they vote for socialism. And if they try to vote to take that money from job creators, then those job creators will just start shipping jobs overseas, and moving their money out so they don’t have to pay taxes on it here. There’s no way to fix this by confiscation or redistribution.