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The Trump Deficit

The Great Zaganza

Maledictorian
The Great Zaganza
Joined
Aug 14, 2016
Messages
29,810
The US deficit is rising (both total and as a ratio to GDP) since Trump took office.

The total deficit for 2018 was $779 billion.

As of May 2019, the deficit for the year is $739 billion.
Projections for 2019 total are $1.1 trillion.

Since that would definitely break the debt ceiling, Dems and the GOP have agreed to raise the limit the US can borrow.

Trump and Republicans (as always), claimed that the economic stimulus would pay for the tax creaks - but despite the economy chugging along, tax revenue is falling further and further behind spending.

This can only be called the Trump Deficit, as the President is doing exactly what he has done all his life: spending other people's money.
 
It's all the Democrats fault. If they didn't frustrate him at every turn by refusing him his wall (illegals cost the US eleventy gazillion dollars a week), and stopping him repealing the ACA (another gazillion a day) then there'd be a yuge surplus, the biggest and best in history.

Also each of those emails cost a million dollars, so that's 33 billion right there :rolleyes:
 
The normal pattern when there is no structural deficit is to show a surplus when the economy is good and a deficit when it takes a downturn. The fact that there is such a large deficit when the economy is doing well means the structural deficit is even larger. When the US economy inevitably slows the deficit will be much larger still.

I think we will see a US budget deficit that exceeds $2 trillion at some point in the next 5 years
 
The Great Zaganza said:
This can only be called the Trump Deficit, as the President is doing exactly what he has done all his life: spending other people's money.
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How does that work? Congress has the sole authority to decide how much to spend and what to spend on. And the president's literal job is to spend the taxpayer's money, as directed by acts of Congress.

If Trump is truly so horrible as people say, why do people keep having to stretch to ludicrous lengths to find examples of his horribleness? Call it the McConnell deficit, or the GOP deficit, if your partisan animus demands something along those lines. Calling it the Trump deficit just seems unserious. Like, if this is the worst thing you can come up with - that the president is deficit spending as required by the constitution - then probably the Trump presidency is only a bad thing in your very confused and partisan head.
 
If Trump can crow from the rooftops about how much he's improved the economy and boosted the stock markets, the sack o' rotting yams can own the deficit, too.
 
theprestige said:
How does that work? Congress has the sole authority to decide how much to spend and what to spend on. And the president's literal job is to spend the taxpayer's money, as directed by acts of Congress.

If Trump is truly so horrible as people say, why do people keep having to stretch to ludicrous lengths to find examples of his horribleness? Call it the McConnell deficit, or the GOP deficit, if your partisan animus demands something along those lines. Calling it the Trump deficit just seems unserious. Like, if this is the worst thing you can come up with - that the president is deficit spending as required by the constitution - then probably the Trump presidency is only a bad thing in your very confused and partisan head.
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Who put forward the ludicrous tax cuts that have benefited corporations and the richest in society biggly and has led to this deficit? Think his name was Ronald Dump or something like that. Seems to be a big noise in the USA anyway...

In other words, you can't have Trump do a Pontius Pilate on this one. His hands are covered in the blood of this disaster.
 
theprestige said:
How does that work? Congress has the sole authority to decide how much to spend and what to spend on. And the president's literal job is to spend the taxpayer's money, as directed by acts of Congress.

If Trump is truly so horrible as people say, why do people keep having to stretch to ludicrous lengths to find examples of his horribleness? Call it the McConnell deficit, or the GOP deficit, if your partisan animus demands something along those lines. Calling it the Trump deficit just seems unserious. Like, if this is the worst thing you can come up with - that the president is deficit spending as required by the constitution - then probably the Trump presidency is only a bad thing in your very confused and partisan head.
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Trump has run on cutting taxes, promoted the tax cuts with lies, cheered Republicans in Congress for passing it and signed it with glee and promises of lower taxes and lower deficits.
There is no reason whatsoever not to call it the Trump Deficit.
 
theprestige said:
If that's the worst thing you can come up with...
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You post this in most Trump threads, in response to a multitude of different examples of horrible crap Trump has done. Do you find that walling off every Trump offense and pretending each exists in isolation helps you minimize the harm you see?
 
I would vote for a fiscal conservative if such a thing existed anymore. They're gone.


Is it Trump's fault? Yes, because he has more power to influence US spending and tax policy than any other man on the planet. However, in my opinion, if Clinton had been elected, it would be her fault, because I don't think she would have done what was needed to get it under control. It might not be as bad, but it would still be huge.

And of the people running to replace Trump, who is proposing anything that would make it better? Who is even talking about it? They aren't talking about it because it doesn't get them votes, and that is not their fault, it's ours.


We have met the enemy, and they are us.
 
theprestige said:
If Trump is truly so horrible as people say, why do people keep having to stretch to ludicrous lengths to find examples of his horribleness? Call it the McConnell deficit, or the GOP deficit, if your partisan animus demands something along those lines. Calling it the Trump deficit just seems unserious.
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First of all, as another poster pointed out, if Trump can take credit for things like the Dow and the unemployment rate, then he can take the blame for the deficit.

And yes, it is true... McConnell, Ryan, and the rest of the GOP (except for a small handful of Republican congress critters) also deserve blame for the increased deficit. But Trump was president. He had options. He could have used his position to try to influence congress if he was concerned about the implications on federal finances. He could have tweeted warnings about the deficit. More importantly he could have vetoed the bill. Instead, he was acting as cheerleader

Once again, in case you didn't catch on: Trump could have used the presidential veto power to prevent the implementation of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The president has the authority (and even the responsibility) to challenge bad laws.

So yes, calling it the Trump deficit is a valid label.
 
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Meadmaker said:
I would vote for a fiscal conservative if such a thing existed anymore. They're gone.
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Sure there is, they are democrats. Though I guess you need to have the stronger the poor need to starve to than democrats typically do to really count as a fiscal conservative.
 
theprestige said:
If that's the worst thing you can come up with...
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Wow.

Here's a philosophical question: How many times can theprestige make a post to this effect before the irony of such repeated postings finally sinks in to him? LOL!
 
Better question: How long until people just ignore him?

Also, and we all know this, the stock market is not "the economy". Just because the decreasing number of investors are making a killing on Wall Street does not mean the economy is helping the overwhelming majority of Americans.
 
ponderingturtle said:
Sure there is, they are democrats. Though I guess you need to have the stronger the poor need to starve to than democrats typically do to really count as a fiscal conservative.
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Well, let me ask your opinion on this question. If I were looking for a fiscal conservative among the Democratic candidates who have announced that they are running for President, who would you recommend?





(Note: "Not as bad as Trump" isn't sufficient to qualify a candidate as fiscal conservative.)
 
Your raw debt figures mean very little unless you control them as a rate. A few weeks ago I created a chart comparing the debt as a percent of GDP for the last few presidents. I really don't believe that enough time has passed to allow us enough data to make a comparison.
 
ServiceSoon said:
Your raw debt figures mean very little unless you control them as a rate. A few weeks ago I created a chart comparing the debt as a percent of GDP for the last few presidents. I really don't believe that enough time has passed to allow us enough data to make a comparison.
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Is your concern that the 2018 deficit / GDP data will change?
If so, do you think the actual deficit is higher or lower?
And what reason do you have to doubt the completeness of the Fed's data?
 
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1153694545986621442

Reagan took the deficit from 70 billion to 175 billion.
Bush 41 took it to 300 billion.
Clinton got it to zero.
Bush 43 took it from 0 to 1.2 trillion.
Obama halved it to 600 billion.
Trump’s got it back to a trillion.

Morons: “Democrats cause deficits.”
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Also this:

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/230400303349002240/

No member of Congress should be eligible for re-election if our country's budget is not balanced---deficits not allowed!
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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/131793462830956544

The greatest threat to our security is our debt. It is already past 100% GDP. We need to make real budget cuts.
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https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/230760366232195072

The deficits under @BarackObama are the highest in America's history. Why is he bankrupting our country?
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And a bunch more I can't be arsed to source.
 
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