April 15 is income tax day for about 140 million individual filers. Collectively, we will have paid $1 trillion in 2005 income taxes. Despite the popular focus on income taxes, they account for much less than half of the federal government’s receipts of nearly $2.4 trillion.

Although income taxes get all the headlines, Social Security and corporate taxes will raise even more revenue than personal income taxes this year.The federal government also has a wide range of ever-increasing “user fees,” a modern euphemism for hidden taxes that do not require congressional approval. Excise, estate, and other taxes account for the remainder of federal receipts. Even so, the federal government projects a deficit this year of more than $400 billion, as it spends more than $7 billion a day. Of that, more than $1 billion a day is financed by increased debt.

The Office of Management and Budget tells a compelling story in the president’s budget submission that we are winning the initial battle to get the federal budget under control. Perhaps we are, but final victory seems as remote as ever. Our government has not merely committed to spending at least $2.8 trillion in financial year 2007, it has made obligations to spending tens of trillions of dollars over the next few decades.

In the past, a public that has grown tired of increasing debts could have – but never has – elected a Congress committed to reducing the debt. The possibility of this equalizing force is diminishing. Today it is not obvious that even a fiscally responsible Congress could lawfully reduce the size of some predetermined federal programs. Instead, Congress increasingly commits spending not just for those who elect them but for future generations as well. Even without new laws, over time current entitlement programs will expand the federal government to more than its 20% share of GDP.

Last week, Congress raised the national debt ceiling by nearly $800 billion to $9 trillion, or roughly threequarters of GDP. The increase in the debt ceiling passed with little more than the yawn that accompanies a hackneyed refrain. On a per capita basis, we have an increase of $2,500 in debt to a total debt of $30,000. At this rate, the debt will double in 12 years. Also last week, Congress failed, as it usually does, to pass a budget blueprint package with guidelines for next year’s spending.

Since World War II, our economy has accommodated a large federal debt relative to the size of the national economy.Government debt is increasing more rapidly than the economy, yet the debt has fueled neither inflation nor real interest rates beyond historical ranges. But there are limits to how much federal debt our economy, and international investors in Treasury instruments, can absorb.

Indeed, the very health of our economy has given many in Congress a sense of economic invulnerability. Imprudent behavior in the past yielded no immediate harm, so perhaps the risks associated with federal deficits are greatly exaggerated. Elected officials who discount all outcomes beyond the next election consistently have found great benefits in increasing federal spending.

In the 1990s, many congressional members spoke candidly about the importance of keeping government spending in check. Talk of reducing government spending has all but disappeared in an era that rewards big government spenders.

From the Budget Impoundment and Control Act of 1974 to the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act of the 1980s to more recent budget laws, Congress has put in place complicated rules to avoid increasing federal debt. The common element of all these laws is that they are easily circumvented. For example, current rules require a balance of projected spending and projected revenues over a five-year period. Medicare and Medicaid laws that have spending exploding in the future can comply with these spending rules and still bankrupt our children.

We pay income taxes and other federal taxes, fees, and obligations every day of the year, not just on April 15. Not by coincidence, tax day is scheduled nearly as far from Election Day as possible.

A former FCC commissioner, Mr. Furchtgott-Roth is president of Furchtgott-Roth Economic Enterprises. He can be reached at hfr@furchtgott-roth.com.