The GOP’s entitlement math doesn’t add up

This essay is a part of The Right Way Forward, Restoring America’s new think tank debate series in which leading conservative institutions argue the defining questions of the post-Trump era. Read about the series here.

The Marxist Leon Trotsky quipped during the Russian Civil War, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” The same might be said today about the rising federal debt: While both parties do their best to ignore it, the federal government’s dire fiscal situation won’t be ignored much longer.

This presents different challenges to each political party. For the Democrats, the problem is politics. If they can overcome Americans’ aversion to higher taxes, they will get the expansive welfare state they desire. But the Republican Party faces a more existential threat: The party’s newfound enthusiasm for elderly entitlement programs is mathematically incompatible with Republicans’ history as the party of low taxes and