President Joe Biden might have a worse record on the economy than his presumptive 2024 challenger. However, regarding fiscal policy, the incumbent and former President Donald Trump share an abhorrent reputation for adding trillions to the national debt even without the coronavirus pandemic. A new report placed the budget-related spotlight on Bidenomics and Trumponomics and the conclusion did not bode well for either doctrine.
Bidenomics, Trumponomics, and the National Debt
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a non-profit public policy organization focusing on fiscal issues, published a new report titled “Trump and Biden: The National Debt.” The paper compared the fiscal records of the Biden and Trump administrations heading into the first presidential debate of the 2024 election season. The study’s findings captured the attention of the mainstream media because it provided a damning look at Trumponomics at least as it relates to the national debt. So, what did it find?
At first glance, the headline was that Trump approved $8.4 trillion of new ten-year borrowing in his one term in the White House. Excluding the CARES Act and other COVID-era relief and stimulus measures, Trump added $4.8 trillion to the ten-year debt window. How has Biden performed in his first three years and five months in the Oval Office? According to the CRFB study, Biden approved $4.3 trillion of new ten-year borrowing. The incumbent executed $2.2 trillion in new ten-year borrowing by omitting the American Rescue Plan.
The former president added $5.9 trillion to the national debt in his first three years and five months. Biden’s share of the debt held by the public has increased by $6 trillion in the same span.
A notable tidbit of information in the entity’s report was how much executive actions contributed to the ongoing hemorrhaging. CRFB research showed that Biden’s executive actions added $1.2 trillion to the ten-year debt window on net. By comparison, the real estate billionaire mogul’s executive orders contributed less than $20 billion. Additionally, researchers found that 77% of Trump’s approved ten-year debt was fueled by bipartisan legislation, while 71% of Biden’s debt was caused by executive action.
What were these policies? For the 45th president, it was $456 billion in healthcare-related executive actions, offset by the $443 billion generated from new and increased tariffs. Under the current president, student-debt forgiveness schemes were a significant driver, equaling $620 billion. “Other executive actions” added another $548 billion.
What’s past is prologue? Perhaps, says CRFB staff. “The next presidential term will present significant fiscal challenges,” the paper stated. “While past performance is not necessarily indicative of future actions, it is helpful to examine the fiscal performance from each President’s time in office for clues as to how they plan to confront these challenges or how high of a priority fiscal responsibility will be on their agendas.”
The More Things Change
It is said that the more things change, the more they stay the same. Despite the canyon-sized philosophical gap between the Republicans and Democrats on day-to-day social subjects, let the record show that there has been little fiscal difference in the political parties. As Liberty Nation News has reported for the past several years, the numbers speak for themselves. Since 2000, US data have shown that whether the Republicans control a trifecta of power or the Democrats do, the federal government and spending keep growing. In the past quarter-century, the national debt has exploded, the budget deficit and interest payments are now permanently above $1 trillion, and unfunded liabilities and expenditures are roughly $200 trillion.
Neither Trump nor Biden has presented a serious blueprint to control the debt and deficits. The former aims to employ pro-growth policies to help manage the red ink flowing through the streets of Washington. The latter has put together deficit-reduction plans to trim the shortfall by $3 trillion over the next ten years. Are these enough?
Before Uncle Sam notices, the national debt will top $50 trillion, entitlement reserve funds will have been exhausted, and the taxpayer share of the IOUs will be half a million dollars. A plethora of reports, whether from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) or the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, have emulated the famous line from the first Friday the 13th movie: “Doomed. You’re all doomed.”
