Reprinted with permission from Shareblue.
When he was running for office, Trump promised he could “get rid of” America’s $19 trillion national debt “fairly quickly.” In fact, he boasted he could wipe it all out “over a period of eight years.”
In yet another failure, Trump has added $2 trillion to the debt during his first two years, according to new figures released by the Treasury Department. CNN reports that the recent spike in the national deficit is “particularly unusual in such a strong economy without major new expenditures.”
President Obama left a recovering economy in the hands of Trump and deficit enthusiast Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI). As CNN notes, the first year of Trump’s term “debt began to level off.”
Unfortunately, Republicans were incapable of a minimal level of fiscal competence. The successes of Obama’s presidency were undermined by GOP corporate greed. The main catalyst for the increase in the national debt is the failing and unpopular 2017 GOP tax scam, Trump’s lone legislative achievement.
As soon as Trump and Ryan rammed through the tax scam, the lower tax rates for millionaires and corporations meant lower revenue for the Treasury. The massive deficits incurred mainly benefitted Wall Street banks and billionaires while middle-class families were mainly left out in the cold. The law was so skewed toward the rich that Ryan was reduced to bragging about a secretary who would gain a paltry $1.50 per week.
Republicans had believed their tax scam would sweep them to electoral victory in 2018. But it was such a failure that Republicans essentially abandoned talking about it at all, instead hoping ugly anti-immigrant policies and blatant racism would save them. That didn’t happen, and Democrats picked up 40 House seats.
Meanwhile, Trump couldn’t care less about the effect of his economic policies. He has reportedly“shrugged off” warnings from his advisers about the growing debt and the future consequences of his policies, saying, “Yeah, but I won’t be here.” He is apparently fine letting some future president clean up his mess.
Trump has a long history of failing at business ventures. In the past, his father would bail him out through various legal and ethically dubious means.
But this time, Trump is on his own. There’s no one to bail him out, and he can’t hide behind his daddy’s money. Trump’s failures are burdening generations to come, and he alone owns them.
Published with permission of The American Independent.
