There was a time when the Republicans were constantly in a state of apoplexy over the deficit and the national debt (even though they always raise it more than Democrats do when they are in charge.)
As you can see, it wasn’t just COVID…
The winner of November’s election faces a gloomy fiscal outlook, with rapidly rising debt levels at a time when interest rates are already high and demographic pressure on retirement programs is rising.
- Both candidates bear a share of the responsibility, as each added trillions to that tally while in office.
- But Trump’s contribution was significantly higher, according to the fiscal watchdogs at the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, thanks to both tax cuts and spending deals struck in his four years in the White House.
By the numbers: Trump added $8.4 trillion in borrowing over a ten-year window, CRFB finds in a report out this morning.
- Biden’s figure clocks in at $4.3 trillion with seven months remaining in his term.
- If you exclude COVID relief spending from the tally, the numbers are $4.8 trillion for Trump and $2.2 trillion for Biden.
For Trump, the biggest non-COVID drivers of higher public debt were his signature tax cuts enacted in 2017 (causing $1.9 trillion in additional borrowing) and bipartisan spending packages (which added $2.1 trillion).
For Biden, major non-COVID factors include 2022 and 2023 spending bills ($1.4 trillion), student debt relief ($620 billion), and legislation to support health care for veterans ($520 billion).
The article goes on to say “both sides” are more or less equally to blame, blah,blah, blah…. But the reality is that there is only one party that obsesses over “the deficit” when a Democrat is in charge and spends like drunken sailors when Republicans are in the White House. And it isn’t the Democrats.
I’m sure it won’t matter in this election because it’s very inconvenient for them due to Trump’s tax cutting spree which they want to continue if he wins. But they should at least be questioned about this whenever the media gets the chance.