The 1987 movie, Planes, Trains and Automobiles, featured a scene in which John Candys character is driving the wrong direction on an interstate while Steve Martins character sleeps in the passenger seat. A concerned motorist on the proper side of the highway pulls alongside the wayward vehicle and begins honking, then rolls down his window and hollers, Youre going the wrong way. To which Mr. Candy replies, How would he know where were going?

The scene comes to mind amid the release this week of the Heritage Foundations economic freedom index. Were going the wrong way.

The Hill reported Wednesday that the United States slipped six spots from last year, coming in at 17th among 180 countries. The nations 75.1 ranking out of 100 a dead-solid C is its worst ever showing and continues a trend in which the United States has moved backward in eight of the past nine years.

Hong Kong, Singapore and New Zealand topped the list, with respective scores of 89.8, 88.6 and 83.7. Switzerland (81.5) and Australia (81.0) were the only other countries to score 80 or more, the studys threshold to be considered economically free. Countries between 70 and 79.9 are considered mostly free.

The United States: Land of the mostly free. Pretty inspiring.

The index is weighted in 13 components, and the United States fared miserably in three of those areas: tax burden (65.3), government spending (55.9) and fiscal health (53.3). On the bright side, however, improvements in all three of those issues could be on the horizon.

President Donald Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress have already stated their intention to pass long-overdue tax reform. The president has also spoken in no uncertain terms about peeling back bloat in government spending and staffing, as the federal debt approaches $20 trillion.

Should Congress and the president successfully steer through saner tax policy and more sound spending legislation, Americas flat-lining F score of 53.3 in fiscal health will also almost certainly improve.

Its a simple formula. Now, Congress and President Trump need to slam the brakes on this careening car, do a quick U-turn and start accelerating in the right direction. Make America great again? An obvious place to start would be to make this country economically free again.

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EDITORIAL: The United States continues to drop on the Heritage Foundation's index of economic freedom - Las Vegas Review-Journal