https://www.newsweek.com/trump-deficit-d...ma-1463802

DONALD TRUMP PROMISED TO ELIMINATE THE DEFICIT IN 8 YEARS. SO FAR, HE HAS INCREASED IT BY 68%

Quote:During the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump made an aggressive promise on federal finances: He would eliminate the budget deficit within eight years. Now, three years into his presidency, the deficit is 68 percent higher than when he started.

Trump inherited a deficit of $585 billion when he took office in January 2017. That was 58 percent lower than the $1.4 trillion former President Barack Obama inherited in 2009 following the financial crisis, a number his administration slashed over two terms.

According to the latest Congressional Budget Office data released on Monday, the full-year deficit for 2019 is estimated to come in at $984 billion, just shy of the $1 trillion that many analysts were expecting. In 2018 the figure was $779 billion and in 2017 it was $665 billion.

"Relative to the size of the economy, the deficit—at an estimated 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—was the highest since 2012, and 2019 was the fourth consecutive year in which the deficit increased as a percentage of GDP," the CBO said in its report.


"He's got no hope of eliminating the deficit," Danny Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth College and a former monetary policymaker at the Bank of England, told Newsweek. "The only possibility is for him to increase the deficit...This looks much like the policy on Syria: Uncoordinated chaos."

During the last election, Trump said he could clear America's $19 trillion of gross federal debt within eight years. To do that would mean eliminating the federal deficit, the negative difference between income and expenditure which keeps adding to the debt pile. It is now $22 trillion.

"We're not a rich country. We're a debtor nation...We've got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt," Trump told The Washington Post in April 2016, several months before the election he would win. "I think I could do it fairly quickly...I would say over a period of eight years," Trump added, and suggested he would do so by renegotiating trade deals and creating trade surpluses.


Yet, since taking office, Trump's trade negotiations have provided little fruit for the economy and are instead hurting the pockets of American companies and consumers that are absorbing the financial burden of the tariffs.

After scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Trump administration agreed a new deal with Canada and Mexico called the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), but it is yet to be ratified by Congress. Negotiations with China are ongoing as mutual tariffs impact hundreds of billions of dollars in goods trading between the two.

And talks also continue with the European Union as a similar tit-for-tat tariff war, a conflict opened by the Trump administration last year, rumbles on with no end in sight. It was initially over steel and aluminum imports but has now expanded to a range of products.

These trade wars are hurting America's manufacturing sector and weakening the domestic economy. But they are also clipping global growth, which is feeding back to further dampen U.S. GDP. There is talk among economists of a possible recession coming down the line.

Another major deficit issue is the Trump administration's $1 trillion package of tax cuts, which mostly benefited those with higher wealth and incomes, passed at the end of 2017. These tax cuts, the administration argued, would pay for themselves over time by fueling economic growth.

But the Trump administration's spending continues to significantly outpace its receipts, widening the deficit and adding more money to the federal debt pile despite the president's claim that he could clear it.

"I think the reality was that this was ideology over economics," Blanchflower told Newsweek. "I've always argued you needed stimulus, but the time they did it was wrong, how they did it was wrong, and surprise surprise this is what you get.

"A trillion-dollar deficit at the point at which the U.S. economy is clearly slowing and may well be entering recession as the rest of the world is."

Bonus article, because Tuesday.

https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter...e-deficit/

Here's how the deficit performed under Republican and Democratic presidents, from Reagan to Trump

I think Shrack beat you to it...

(10-08-2019 10:13 AM)BobcatEngineer Wrote:  I think Shrack beat you to it...

Yah after I made this I saw theirs. Mod has permission from me to combine!

Please stop being stupid and thinking this has anything to do with Trump. We educated you guys for the past 8 years on what would happen if Obamacare passed. You have no excuse for your ignorance.

(10-08-2019 10:19 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Please stop being stupid and thinking this has anything to do with Trump. We educated you guys for the past 8 years on what would happen if Obamacare passed. You have no excuse for your ignorance.

This is true. Obamacare was slated to add huge expenditures to the budget. If a deficit exists it's due to increased spending beyond revenues.

We know Trump has been proposing cuts to various agencies which has been met with objections.

Cut spending -- period.

From the linked article
"(President Ronald) Reagan took the deficit from 70 billion to 175 billion." This is more or less accurate. The federal deficit went from about $78.9 billion at the beginning of Reagan’s presidency to $152.6 billion at the end of it. At points between 1983 and 1986, the deficit was actually more than $175 billion.

"(George H.W.) Bush 41 took it to 300 billion." Close, but not exactly. The number was around $255 billion at the end of Bush’s term. The deficit spiked at around $290.3 billion the year before he left office.

"(Bill) Clinton got it to zero." This is true. During his presidency, Clinton managed to zero out the deficit and end his term with a $128.2 billion surplus.

"(George W.) Bush 43 took it from 0 to 1.2 trillion." This is in the ballpark. Ignoring the fact that he actually started his presidency with a surplus, Bush left office in 2009 with a federal deficit of roughly $1.41 trillion.

"(Barack) Obama halved it to 600 billion." This is essentially accurate. Obama left the presidency with a deficit of approximately $584.6 billion, which is more than halving $1.41 trillion. The deficit was even lower in 2015 at around $441.9 billion.

(10-08-2019 10:19 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Please stop being stupid and thinking this has anything to do with Trump. We educated you guys for the past 8 years on what would happen if Obamacare passed. You have no excuse for your ignorance.

They aren't stupid just zombies following their overlords.

Orange man bad. Muh economy edition

(10-08-2019 10:19 AM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Please stop being stupid and thinking this has anything to do with Trump. We educated you guys for the past 8 years on what would happen if Obamacare passed. You have no excuse for your ignorance.

you were kinder than thine would've been...

#immainnamoodthatisdark

Anyone who continues to grow the economy, eliminate unemployment, and fight a trade war with China at the same time has my vote.

(10-08-2019 10:50 AM)Claw Wrote:  Anyone who continues to grow the economy, eliminate unemployment, and fight a trade war with China at the same time has my vote.

XACLY!

#fkspoiledbiatches

A poster that didnt keep his promise is criticizing a President for not keeping his promise...

And democrats are pushing proposals for $100+ trillion in new spending.

I’ll listen to an actual conservative, but self-admitted leftists that want to talk about deficits are absolutely shameless.

(10-08-2019 11:02 AM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  A poster thats that didnt keep his promise is criticizing a President for not keeping his promise...

Trump actually cut into Obama's deficit forced upon him, as receipts into the treasury are at an all-time high. (Thanks to the Trump tax cuts)

So had it not been for Trump, the damage Obama left on these years would have been even worse. [/i]

It doesn't matter who is president, the deficit will continue to go up due to how our federal reserve/debt system works. We're on an exponential curve and the deficits will continue to increase until we have a currency crisis.

(10-08-2019 11:02 AM)UTSAMarineVet09 Wrote:  A poster that didnt keep his promise is criticizing a President for not keeping his promise...

Wait...what's a promise again? Oh, yeah, it's like "marriage". Teach your children well...

You want the deficit cut, stop fighting him at every turn as he tries to drain the swamp. That goes for both sides.

Can anyone here remember when the “deficit” or the “national debt” or anything similar, was an effective political issue, for any candidate or either party?

Neither can I.

(10-08-2019 10:06 AM)JDTulane Wrote:  https://www.newsweek.com/trump-deficit-d...ma-1463802

DONALD TRUMP PROMISED TO ELIMINATE THE DEFICIT IN 8 YEARS. SO FAR, HE HAS INCREASED IT BY 68%

Quote:During the 2016 campaign, President Donald Trump made an aggressive promise on federal finances: He would eliminate the budget deficit within eight years. Now, three years into his presidency, the deficit is 68 percent higher than when he started.

Trump inherited a deficit of $585 billion when he took office in January 2017. That was 58 percent lower than the $1.4 trillion former President Barack Obama inherited in 2009 following the financial crisis, a number his administration slashed over two terms.

According to the latest Congressional Budget Office data released on Monday, the full-year deficit for 2019 is estimated to come in at $984 billion, just shy of the $1 trillion that many analysts were expecting. In 2018 the figure was $779 billion and in 2017 it was $665 billion.

"Relative to the size of the economy, the deficit—at an estimated 4.7 percent of gross domestic product (GDP)—was the highest since 2012, and 2019 was the fourth consecutive year in which the deficit increased as a percentage of GDP," the CBO said in its report.


"He's got no hope of eliminating the deficit," Danny Blanchflower, professor of economics at Dartmouth College and a former monetary policymaker at the Bank of England, told Newsweek. "The only possibility is for him to increase the deficit...This looks much like the policy on Syria: Uncoordinated chaos."

During the last election, Trump said he could clear America's $19 trillion of gross federal debt within eight years. To do that would mean eliminating the federal deficit, the negative difference between income and expenditure which keeps adding to the debt pile. It is now $22 trillion.

"We're not a rich country. We're a debtor nation...We've got to get rid of the $19 trillion in debt," Trump told The Washington Post in April 2016, several months before the election he would win. "I think I could do it fairly quickly...I would say over a period of eight years," Trump added, and suggested he would do so by renegotiating trade deals and creating trade surpluses.


Yet, since taking office, Trump's trade negotiations have provided little fruit for the economy and are instead hurting the pockets of American companies and consumers that are absorbing the financial burden of the tariffs.

After scrapping the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the Trump administration agreed a new deal with Canada and Mexico called the United States–Mexico–Canada Agreement (USMCA), but it is yet to be ratified by Congress. Negotiations with China are ongoing as mutual tariffs impact hundreds of billions of dollars in goods trading between the two.

And talks also continue with the European Union as a similar tit-for-tat tariff war, a conflict opened by the Trump administration last year, rumbles on with no end in sight. It was initially over steel and aluminum imports but has now expanded to a range of products.

These trade wars are hurting America's manufacturing sector and weakening the domestic economy. But they are also clipping global growth, which is feeding back to further dampen U.S. GDP. There is talk among economists of a possible recession coming down the line.

Another major deficit issue is the Trump administration's $1 trillion package of tax cuts, which mostly benefited those with higher wealth and incomes, passed at the end of 2017. These tax cuts, the administration argued, would pay for themselves over time by fueling economic growth.

But the Trump administration's spending continues to significantly outpace its receipts, widening the deficit and adding more money to the federal debt pile despite the president's claim that he could clear it.

"I think the reality was that this was ideology over economics," Blanchflower told Newsweek. "I've always argued you needed stimulus, but the time they did it was wrong, how they did it was wrong, and surprise surprise this is what you get.

"A trillion-dollar deficit at the point at which the U.S. economy is clearly slowing and may well be entering recession as the rest of the world is."

Who cares......... That is not why I liked or many others voted for the guy. You name me one politician who fulfilled all the promises they made and I will.... it doesn't matter because it has never happened in history.

I did not vote for Trump the first time around.... however I am this time and do you know why..............?

Because he is rattling the entire establishment of entitled, hypocritical, and corrupt people who have been living large off of, and pretending to care about, the people who pay their bills.... on both sides of the aisle.

I want an entirely new set of Congressmen and Senators to start fresh and without hands in their pocket.... While that is an utter pipe dream, I think at the very least this unstable, unpredictable, egotistical, magnificent orange mother f'er has exposed so many of these people for what they are........

From Kamala Harris, to Jerry Nadler, to Adam Schiff....... and that is a really short list of examples..... These people will sell their soul for a vote and not think twice on reneging one nano-second after that vote has served its purpose.... You have Liz Warren running on promises that would literally bankrupt the country because she has lost complete sight of why she was elected into office (which was NOT to stop DJT) and she is now exposed as an ultral left leaning windbag who hasn't done one f-ing thing for her own state since November 10th, 2016 when she decided her only mission in life now was to be a pebble in DJT's shoe.

I wish DJT was not going to be president after this next election, but neither party can serve up an electable candidate at this point. Given that cold hard truth, I would rather had DJT rattling all their cages and continue to expose them, than the alternative - any alternative.