If we have a tax system that is supposed to pay for the running of the government, why does the US Government have deficits - why won't Congress collect enough taxes to cover the spending? The federal government runs deficits because it spends more then it collects in revenue. On the spending side the COVID relief items, military spending, and more recently erasing of student debt for some students shows that the government instead of limiting spending is increasing spending. The CBO article posted for the class supports this saying that while tax revenue is projected to rise over the next 10 years so are deficits showing that the projected spending for the next decade is greater than the projected revenue increases. Increased taxes are unpopular and many politicians and most Congresses avoid increasing taxes out of political self-interest. As the text says raising revenue can be done in one of three ways: 1. Tax a new tax base, 2. Increase an existing tax rate, or 3. Enlarging a current tax base. Taxing new things by adding new tax base is difficult to do. Increasing the tax rate for existing taxes is politically unpopular and also very difficult. That leaves