GOP Under Trump Rack up 1st Trillion in Debt Despite Record Gov't Tax Revenue
With many warning of a future debt crisis in America, new reports last week announced that President Donald Trump has amassed $1 trillion in debt during his first year as Commander-in-Chief.
According to The Washington Times, analysts warn that it may be only a “taste of what’s to come” once the administration’s tax-cuts and “spending spree” the last several months have finally caught up.
Some experts have warned that the president’s next $1 trillion may come within another year and that the U.S. could be seeing $3 trillion in annual deficits depending on the direction interest rates sway.
“We are in for a rude awakening,” warned Maya MacGuineas, who is president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The news seems to be a setback for Trump, who campaigned heavily on the promise that he could eliminate America’s debt entirely within eight years and who has groups like MacGuineas recording every number spent.
Her organization recently calculated that Trump’s latest deal will add at least $2.4 trillion to the already mounting debt the U.S. accumulated with December’s tax cuts and January’s so-called “budget-busting” spending deal.
The group also warns that, should Congress make these signed policies permanent, another $6 trillion could be added — that’s $1 trillion per year in interest payments alone.
Around this time last year, the president had praised his administration after the national debt, which was $19.947 trillion, had slightly dipped after his inauguration, leading the Commander-in-Chief to post the news on Twitter.
“The media has not reported that the National Debt in my first month went down by $12 billion vs a $200 billion increase in Obama first mo.,” he wrote.
However, that all seemed to change as the numbers rolled in last week, leaving analysts in the Treasury Department to tally a total of $20.958 trillion as of last Wednesday.
And though Trump was by no means the fastest of the president’s to add his first $1 trillion, the numbers have many concerned as the president himself has scarcely mentioned America’s debt at all lately.
It is usual for presidents to inherit both the good and bad of the economy and policies of their predecessors, as Trump was faced with both a recession as well as the ongoing Wall Street bailout during the Obama administration, though experts warn the staggering numbers leave him open to examination.
“The fact that we have now hit $1 trillion in addition to the total debt isn’t something he should be entirely accountable for, but it is a standard he put out there,” MacGuineas said.
MacGuineas added that Trump will eventually have to answer for the tax cuts in December as well as January’s budget deal, both of which have dug a deeper hole in America’s pockets.
“I project the budget deficit will top $1 trillion by next year and reach $2 trillion within a decade,” said Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.
Riedl added that the tax and spending bills would only add nearly $3 trillion to the debt, in addition to the $10 trillion already formed from previous spending habits from the government.
The Congresisonal Budget Office has also taken it upon itself to issue warnings to Congress that the growing debt may eventually crowd out private investment, causing others to hesitate on whether or not to purchase U.S. government debt.
The Congressional Budget Office regularly issues warning to Congress that the debt will — much farther down the road — begin to crowd out private investment and there could come a point at which others become reluctant to purchase U.S. government debt.
“There could come a time where the public, the global debt buying public would come to the view that we either weren’t prepared to honor our debts or we couldn’t service them,” said Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell. “But we’re a long way from that.”
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