During his State of the Union address, I had to smile when Trump bragged about how the US is doing so well. I noticed he never addressed our national debt.
Somehow, the fact that a bloated spending bill was passed by Congress late last year was viewed as a “win” for both Republicans, especially the President, and Democrats. Maybe, short term, from the sole standpoint of their incumbent elections. But it’s just another loss for American taxpayers.
Once upon a time, when I headed the County Republican Party in a rural Southern county, the GOP was the party of fiscal sanity. No longer.
I’m amazed at how both parties have decided that increased national debt is now acceptable, even in times of a growing and strong economy when historically the national debt went down. This was one of the main reasons that I left the GOP this year to become an independent.
When I speak with Republicans about this situation, they inevitably say it’s due to Obama and that he’s the direct cause of our rising deficit. While this may sound appealing to extreme partisans, there are many holes in this fallacious argument.
First, Obama took over in 2008 in the midst of the greatest fiscal disaster since the Great Depression, which started during a period when W was President and the GOP controlled Congress. The only way that the United States avoided the Second Great Depression was by Congressional passage of a short-term economic stimulus package. Yes, it was costly, but there was little choice and realists in both parties understood that fact.
Second, Obama reduced the annual deficit drastically (although not enough, in my opinion) once the immediate crisis was over. Specifically, the annual national deficit went down considerably in his last term, as shown below (shown in billions, from usgov ernmentspending.com):
2008 – $458; 2009 – $1,413; 2010 – $1,294; 2011 – $1,295; 2012 – $1,087; 2013 – $679; 2014 – $485; 2015 – $438; 2016 – $585.
Third, as shown the deficit has increased substantially for every year of the Trump presidency. 2017 – $665; 2018 – $779; 2019- $984; 2020 (projected)- $1,101. The projected 2020 Trump annual deficit will exceed the annual deficit for 6 of the 8 years Obama was in office.
The bottom line is that neither party seems to care about the bottom line. Supposed conservatives act like the entire deficit is due to Medicare, Social Security and other “socialist” programs. However, the facts are much different.
The decade of the 2000s saw Pentagon spending going from $294 billion in 2000 to $705 billion in 2011. In 2019 defense spending was $939.3 billion. (Information from usgovernment spending.com)
In the meantime, conservatives seem to have forgotten that there are two aspects to a balanced budget: expenses and revenues. Governmental revenues are created via taxes. Conservatives have consistently cut taxes while permitting governmental expenditures to rise.
The latest spending bills illustrate this hypocrisy. According to the respected Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), the latest bi-partisan spending bill coming out of the House would increase the deficit by $500 billion over a ten-year period. Almost all of this deficit increase will be caused by irresponsibly repealing ACA (Obamacare) taxes on medical devices, health insurance companies and high benefit health plans … with no revenue or expense off set.
But these tax cuts are minuscule when compared to the Trump tax cut of 2017. At the time, it was claimed that these cuts, including a corporate tax cut from 35% to 21%, would result in a $4000 raise for families. According to the Center for American Progress, this did not happen. However, these cuts were a major factor in creating significantly more national debt. CRFB projections are that annual debt will be up to $2.4 trillion by 2028. This is consistent with CBO projections, which show federal government outlays far outpacing revenues from now through 2049, with the situation becoming even worse over time.
It’s past time for both political parties to get realistic about balancing revenues and expenditures. Frankly, proceeding on the way that we have is a recipe for disaster that will inevitably impact our children.
Jack Bernard was the first Director of Health Planning for Georgia and served two terms on the Jasper County Board of Health. He retired as a Senior Vice President with a national healthcare corporation. He is now a widely published, nationally known expert on healthcare reform.
