Trump’s 5+ years have done more damage than any president… especially given that just a decade ago, we had a President who helped cut deficits down to a half trillion (2015-2016), and $1 trillion less than the first year from the budget he had taken over, before it was doubled to nearly a trillion in 2019 with republican policies back in place.
Silver_Middle_7240 on
Because the national deficit is determined by congress they dictate spending, and det the tax code.
StoicSunbro on
One way I mentally process large numbers in government spending is to calculate them per capita.
$39 Trillion debt = ~$115,000 per American
This debt is only being “serviced” meaning there’s no actual progress paying it off.
Each year the govt spends over a trillion on just interest.. or ~$3000 per American per year. Debt payments are the largest part of the budget.
Those smaller numbers should make it easier to understand how much the US is struggling with this.
It would take drastic cuts, tax hikes, and decades to realistically pay this off.. and given how poorly the economy is doing I am not optimistic.
zangief137 on
We got Trumped 🤷♂️
No_Bend_2902 on
Republicans and Trump love debt. They thrive on indebting and destroying America.
beavis617 on
Why would Republicans want to stop it? They get to blame Obama, Biden and the Democrats for everything and they have idiots in their base who believes all of it.
glitterandnails on
As long as the dollar remains dominant around the world…
investingtruth on
The spending that drives deficits is politically protected by the constituencies that depend on it, while the revenue increases or benefit cuts required to close the gap are politically fatal to whoever proposes them, which means the rational move for every administration is to kick the problem forward and let the next one inherit it. Japan has operated above 200% of GDP for years without a traditional debt crisis because it borrows in its own currency and holds most of its debt domestically, but the US situation is meaningfully different given its role as the global reserve currency and the fact that foreign demand for Treasuries is no longer the guaranteed backstop it was a decade ago. For investors, this is a slow moving structural problem that does not resolve in any single administration’s term, which is exactly why assets with scarcity and no counterparty risk, gold, Bitcoin, productive real estate, continue to attract capital.
8 Comments
Trump’s 5+ years have done more damage than any president… especially given that just a decade ago, we had a President who helped cut deficits down to a half trillion (2015-2016), and $1 trillion less than the first year from the budget he had taken over, before it was doubled to nearly a trillion in 2019 with republican policies back in place.
Because the national deficit is determined by congress they dictate spending, and det the tax code.
One way I mentally process large numbers in government spending is to calculate them per capita.
$39 Trillion debt = ~$115,000 per American
This debt is only being “serviced” meaning there’s no actual progress paying it off.
Each year the govt spends over a trillion on just interest.. or ~$3000 per American per year. Debt payments are the largest part of the budget.
Those smaller numbers should make it easier to understand how much the US is struggling with this.
It would take drastic cuts, tax hikes, and decades to realistically pay this off.. and given how poorly the economy is doing I am not optimistic.
We got Trumped 🤷♂️
Republicans and Trump love debt. They thrive on indebting and destroying America.
Why would Republicans want to stop it? They get to blame Obama, Biden and the Democrats for everything and they have idiots in their base who believes all of it.
As long as the dollar remains dominant around the world…
The spending that drives deficits is politically protected by the constituencies that depend on it, while the revenue increases or benefit cuts required to close the gap are politically fatal to whoever proposes them, which means the rational move for every administration is to kick the problem forward and let the next one inherit it. Japan has operated above 200% of GDP for years without a traditional debt crisis because it borrows in its own currency and holds most of its debt domestically, but the US situation is meaningfully different given its role as the global reserve currency and the fact that foreign demand for Treasuries is no longer the guaranteed backstop it was a decade ago. For investors, this is a slow moving structural problem that does not resolve in any single administration’s term, which is exactly why assets with scarcity and no counterparty risk, gold, Bitcoin, productive real estate, continue to attract capital.