Trump Added More to the National Debt Than Obama and Bush.

[Benjamin Frank]

I'm repeating myself from other threads, but over the last 40+ years, only "tax and spend" liberals in the White House lowered the deficit, while "fiscally responsible" Republican presidents increased the debt by insane numbers. That's because they funded needless wars via credit card and gave away trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the rich and corporations. Democratic presidents aim just to spend money they actually have, and a lot of that goes into investments that make sure the economy keeps working.

I mean a huge amount of Trump’s debt came from the cares act and the fact we did an unprecedented stimulus . Even despite that his overall year to year average increase in debt was less than Obama’s so you have to take COVID into consideration.

This is ridiculous. The Trump Administration deficit in 2019, before Covid, was right around $1 trillion. I think it's a valid criticism of the Obama Administration, and the Biden Administration, that they haven't reduced the deficit enough, but Obama's 2016 deficit was less than half of Trump's 2019 deficit, even though the economy was stronger in 2019 than in 2016.

You make some good points on economics, but if you are trying to deny that Republicans only pretend to care about the deficit/debt when a Democrat is President, you are lost.

To put it technically, Republicans are Neo Keynesians when a Republican is President but pretend to be Monetarists when a Democrat is President.

[Benjamin Frank]

I'm repeating myself from other threads, but over the last 40+ years, only "tax and spend" liberals in the White House lowered the deficit, while "fiscally responsible" Republican presidents increased the debt by insane numbers. That's because they funded needless wars via credit card and gave away trillions of dollars in tax breaks for the rich and corporations. Democratic presidents aim just to spend money they actually have, and a lot of that goes into investments that make sure the economy keeps working.

I mean a huge amount of Trump’s debt came from the cares act and the fact we did an unprecedented stimulus . Even despite that his overall year to year average increase in debt was less than Obama’s so you have to take COVID into consideration.

This is ridiculous. The Trump Administration deficit in 2019, before Covid, was right around $1 trillion. I think it's a valid criticism of the Obama Administration, and the Biden Administration, that they haven't reduced the deficit enough, but Obama's 2016 deficit was less than half of Trump's 2019 deficit, even though the economy was stronger in 2019 than in 2016.

You make some good points on economics, but if you are trying to deny that Republicans only pretend to care about the deficit/debt when a Democrat is President, you are lost.

To put it technically, Republicans are Neo Keynesians when a Republican is President but pretend to be Monetarists when a Democrat is President.

I am not saying the GOP is good in it (they aren’t) , just that the numbers aren’t as bad as they seem due to COVID. Look at the link I shared .


I consider George W Bush to be the worst president on this issue in modern times as he inherited a surplus , a great economy, and the US as a clear hegemon with no other rival and despite all of that he still ended up doubling the debt .

That's fine, but your math is wrong though. The 33.1% increase under Trump is from a higher base than Obama's 74% increase (over 8 years.) That website, which is showing the net debt, I believe, so that it adds, I believe, increases in the interest on the debt payments,  shows that the average of Trump's deficits is higher than the average of Obama's deficits. Trump had to deal with Covid in his final year, but Obama had to deal with the fallout from the Great Recession. The Obama Administration's final deficit was, I believe, $465 billion, whereas the Trump Administration's, pre Covid, was $996 billion, even though the economy was stronger in 2019 than in 2016.

Sure, this is a headline that doesn't take Covid into account, but a $1 trillion deficit is astounding, and was about 5% of GDP. At worst economists say that a deficit to GDP ratio is not sustainable if above 3%. Of course, the United States is protected by being the World Reserve Currency/Petrodollar, but there is no mistaking that if this were not the case, or if the United States loses this status (as slowly seems to be happening) that the United States would likely be seeking loans from the IMF.

[Benjamin Frank]

(This is only true if you ignore the revenue boosts the Trump tax cuts resulted in and count COVID spending as being created by Trump. Changes in the value of the dollar also matter, as others have noted.)

If you don't count COVID response spending against Trump, you also shouldn't count Great Recession response spending against Obama.  At a minimum that means the 2009 stimulus package and costs associated with the auto bailout shouldn't count against him.  I wonder what the story looks like for Obama after you remove that?

All you really need to know to answer that is that the deficit in Obama's final year of his Presidency was something like $465 billion (still too hgh) whereas the Trump deficit in pre Covid 2019, despite the booming economy, was around $991 billion.

Even adjusting for inflation, nearly double, and with a stronger economy.