Promises Made – Candidate Trump promised to eliminate the national debt in eight years. It was $19 trillion then.
Promises Broken – Over four of the eight years instead of reducing the debt, he will have added $4 trillion, and caused to add trillions more in the outer years.
At the end of eight years he promised the debt would be zero. It will not be $30 trillion. A $50 trillion dollar swing!
Page 6 of his Budget states in part…
“Unsustainable Federal deficits and debt are a serious threat to America’s prosperity. Gross Federal debt is now more than $23 trillion. The 2019 deficit was $985 billion—the largest since the Great Recession—and will climb above $1 trillion this year and for years after.
Such high and rising debt will have serious negative consequences for the budget and the Nation. It slows economic growth, as the costs of financing the debt crowds out more productive investments and could eventually limit the Federal Government’s ability to respond to urgent national security needs, invest in key priorities such as infrastructure, and enact other pro-growth policies. In fact, by 2021, the United States will be spending more money on paying for the debt than for the budgets of the Departments of Veterans Affairs, Justice, Homeland Security, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration combined.
Federal borrowing also competes for funds in the Nation’s capital markets, threatening higher interest rates, and crowding out new investment BUDGET OF THE U. S. GOVERNMENT FOR FISCAL YEAR 2021 7 by the private sector that could create jobs and raise wages.
If America’s spending and debt crisis are not addressed and lower economic growth continues, American families will see a much lower standard of living. Higher interest rates would make it harder for families to buy homes, finance car payments, or pay for college. Fewer education and training opportunities stemming from lower investment would leave workers without the skills to keep up with the demands of a more technology-based, global economy. In addition, continued growth of debt and deficits will constrain American families’ ability to improve their lives and the lives of their children by claiming a larger share of family income for taxes. It is the children and grandchildren of today’s taxpayers who will bear the burden for this recklessness.
The President has laid out a vision to drive down deficits and debt through spending restraint in every Budget he has submitted to the Congress. This Administration’s Budgets have proposed more spending reductions than any other Administration in history. This year’s Budget includes $4.4 trillion in savings—bringing deficits down each year, and putting the Federal Government on a path to a balanced budget in 15 years. This spending restraint includes targeted reductions and eliminations of low-value programs, and a number of policies to improve payment accuracy and eliminate wasteful spending in mandatory programs. The Budget also reflects restraint in non-defense discretionary (NDD) spending, which the Budget proposes to keep five percent below 2020 NDD spending levels, and reduce spending in future years. Such spending restraint, coupled with the President’s tax cuts and deregulatory policies, will keep the U.S. economy thriving and America prosperous for generations to come. Unfortunately, the Congress continues to reject any efforts to restrain spending. Instead, they have greatly contributed to the continued ballooning of Federal debt and deficits, putting the Nation’s fiscal future at risk.
The Administration cannot simply sit by while the Congress continues to spend. In addition to providing a clear road map to a more fiscally responsible future in the Budget, the Administration is using all available tools and levers to restrain spending. This includes reinvigorating Administrative pay-as-you-go, otherwise known as Administrative PAYGO—which imposes a budget-neutrality requirement for discretionary agency actions—to ensure that Executive Branch agencies are also fiscally responsible, as well as the revitalization of tools such as rescissions. The Budget also includes a number of regulatory actions that can be achieved with current authorities to improve program efficiency and eliminate wasteful spending.
Implementing the real spending restraint proposed in the 2021 Budget, coupled with other pro-growth policies, will keep the economy thriving and America prosperous for generations to come. America can choose a new path that the Administration offers with the Budget, or continue the path the Congress and Washington have followed, which will ensure future generations are saddled with less prosperity, less financial control over their lives, and less freedom.”