President Obama left with the deficit and the countries debt around $500 Billion…..
With Trump0 and the Republicans cutting income thru the 2017 tax cut and two years of budget increases with their then majority congress the gap in spending vs revenue has widen by almost double the amount to $984 Billion….
America COULD be headed towards a recession like the one more the. decade ago with a President ‘loves’ debt and does NOT listen to experts….
U.S. debt is considered one of the safest investments in the world and interest rates remain low, which is why the government has been able to borrow money at cheap rates to finance the large annual deficits. But the costs are adding up. The government spent around $380 billion in interest payments on its debt last year, almost as much as the entire federal government contribution to Medicaid.
Budget experts have also warned that a lack of focus on the deficit could make it much harder for the U.S. government to respond to the next budget crisis, because policymakers will have less flexibility to enact new spending programs if they are devoting hundreds of billions of dollars to interest payments on the debt.
“This is the first time in our history that we are seeing a boom in the economy at the same time deficits are rapidly rising. It’s alarming,” said Marc Goldwein, senior policy director of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which supports reducing the deficit.
The Obama administration and Republicans in Congress enacted a series of measures to reduce the deficit starting in 2011, and those measures — and a growing economy — led the deficit to fall by almost 50 percent. But those gains have been lost by a recent apathy among policy makers about addressing the fiscal imbalance.
“There is very little discussion among Republicans about the deficit, and virtually no serious outreach to Democrats for any sort of bipartisan deal,”….
Surprise!
I’ve been saying a downturn IS coming..
Whenever I bring up deficits and debt under Trump to Republicans they just say Democrats would be worse on the issue.
Of course the deficits were smalled under the last 2 Democratic Presidents–but why let facts get in the way of your FOX News-Rush Limbaugh talking points.
I think Clinton actually had a small surplus….
If GOPer’s find a way to support Trump?
Then most of them belong with Trump in the alternate universe
Scott, Deficits fell for the last three Democratic Presidents – if you define as deficit for their last year in office. Deficits rose sharply under LBJ.
Thanks for clarification Zreebs.
I habe to give Republicans credit for great marketing when it comes to deficits and debt. It’s completely at odds with facts but some in the supposedly liberal media still refer to them as the “fiscally conservative” party!
There actually is a fiscal strategy, as stated famously by Grover Norquist, who wanted to starve the Beast so much that he could take it upstairs and drown it in the bathtub.
Basically, what the right-wing Republicans and the less-responsible* of the small-government groups try to do is to cut taxes (seen, of course, as good in the first place) and hence government revenues so much that alarming deficits and increases in the national debt would force any government to reduce (or at least not expand) existing government programmes.
*[The more responsible of small-government advocates also hate deficit spending and a larger national debt so much, that they won’t cut taxes until government spending is first reduced.]
See, for example, this story (from this August) in Forbes magazine:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/teresaghilarducci/2019/08/23/trumps-second-term-plan-for-social-security-starve-the-beast/#622a0c633794
Paul Ryan, both at Ways & Means and as Speaker, was guided enough by principle or ideology, I think, that he wanted to “reform” Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and SSI before running up an even higher deficit.
Others, such as Pres. George W. Bush’s earliest policy advisers, started with the revenue cuts before hitting the Third Rail of American Politics: Social Security. (The choices became cloudier when the Internet Bubble burst and when the economy did need stimulation after 9/11.)
The problem of course is that none of this has ever worked .
In order to do these thing both sides are going to have to agree .The “ starving the beast” hokum makes for good fund raising fodder for Right Wing hucksters like Norquist but as a governing philosophy is unworkable.
As I’ve said before,Conservatism is bunk.
Dave,
There is no question that the “Starve the Beast” was a legitimate Republican philosophy. While there was a large deficit, Republicans could take credit for a politically popular tax cut even though tax cuts have a long and consistent history of exploding the deficit. But I believe GHWB was the last GOP president who was reasonably fiscally responsible. His unpopular tax cut – which he campaigned against- was the right thing to do. GWB substantially increased the budget – and further increased the deficit with a tax cut, but Trump is like GWB on steroids. The budget has grown by double digits and he simultaneously gave a large tax cut.
The most politically popular, but most fiscally reckless thing you can do is to substantially increase spending and cutting taxes simultaneously, although fhat strategy might be needed when the economy is in a recession.
Zreebs, I’m not sure if it’s my reading comprehension, but I don’t grasp
“But I believe GHWB was the last GOP president who was reasonably fiscally responsible. His unpopular tax cut – which he campaigned against- was the right thing to do.”
Is there some word that you missed when revising your post ?
I meant to say GHWB tax increase, not tax cut. Sorry.