Governments do not create wealth. They redistribute it. When an ever-growing percentage of economic output is devoted to servicing debt and funding government promises, productivity slows, innovation weakens, and long-term growth inevitably declines. Eventually the economy begins working for the government instead of the government working for the economy.

The Keynesian school argues that deficits stimulate growth because government spending increases demand. That theory ignores one critical fact. Borrowed money is not free money. Every dollar the government borrows must ultimately come from the productive sector of the economy, whether through taxation, inflation, or borrowing that competes with private investment.