The Deficit Has Exploded Under GOP Presidents
One of the biggest myths in American politics today is that Republicans are fiscal conservatives and Democrats are big spenders. The reality is that the deficit has exploded under Republican presidents and deficits have declined under Democratic presidents. Let’s take a little trip down memory lane to refresh voter memories. Republican propaganda depends upon voter amnesia.
Ronald Reagan tripled the national debt with his tax cuts and defense spending. Between the two of them Reagan and George H.W. Bush quadrupled the national debt. Bush to his credit took the first steps towards balancing the budget when he signed into law a tax increase on the wealthy in 1990. Every conservative Republican voted against it.
When Bill Clinton left office, we had an annual surplus of $200 billion and a projected ten year $5 trillion surplus. If Al Gore had won the election in 2000, the national debt would’ve been paid off by 2009. Clinton laid the foundation for this surplus with a tax increase on the wealthy in 1993. Every Republican voted no and predicted that the tax increase would cause a recession.
George W. Bush squandered Clinton’s hard won surplus on two tax cuts for the rich, two wars and the Medicare Part D program. Former GOP U.S. House representative and Ohio governor John Kasich blamed the Republicans for blowing Clinton’s $5 trillion surplus. Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) candidly admitted that Republicans got into the habit of not paying for things.
When Obama took office, he inherited an annual deficit of $1.3 trillion and an economy that was losing 800,000 jobs per month. Obama made the tough choices and reduced the annual deficit to $585 billion by 2016. The 44th president signed into law the 2011 Sequester Act and the 2013 Fiscal Cliff Act. A combination of tax cuts on the rich and spending cuts reduced the annual deficit by 67%.
During his 2016 presidential campaign, Donald Trump promised that he would eliminate the national debt within eight years. Once he was in office, Trump added $8 trillion to the national debt — a one term record. Republicans like to falsely blame it on the pandemic but Trump added $4.7 trillion to the national debt before the pandemic. The annual deficit was a staggering $3 trillion in 2020.
One of Trump’s most loyal allies in the House said this in 2017 about the deficit: “It’s a great talking point when you have an administration that’s Democrat-led,” said Representative Mark Walker, Republican of North Carolina and the chairman of the Republican Study Committee, a group of about 150 conservative House members. “It’s a little different now that Republicans have both houses and the administration.”
Like Clinton and Obama, Biden inherited a mess from his Republican predecessor. By 2024, Biden had cut Trump’s annual deficits in half and the deficit in his final year in office was $1.36 trillion. Biden got no credit for reducing the deficit — or anything for that matter even though he was a good president.
Trump is now poised to substantially increase the deficit. The House recently passed on a straight party line vote, a budget that will increase the debt ceiling by $4 trillion and will result in massive multi-trillion deficits for as far as the eye can see. It was an astounding act of fiscal recklessness.
The markets aren’t responding well to the Trump/GOP budget. The international market for U.S. debt has been shaken by the House passage of the bill, with the yield on the 20-year and 30-year bonds spiking above 5.1 percent. Mortgage rates are also increasing due to the expectation of massive federal borrowing. Credit rating agency Moody’s, the last major credit rater to preserve triple-A status for U.S. sovereign debt, dropped its rating down to double-A after the cost of the bill was released.
Peter Orszag, who previously led the Congressional Budget Office and the Office of Management and Budget during the Obama administration, commented on the anxiety surrounding America’s deteriorating fiscal situation.
Previously, Orszag said, he had tended to filter out “all the Chicken Little, kind of, ‘the sky is falling’ fiscal stuff, because all of the dire predictions were not happening.” “But if you compare where we are now to where we were a decade ago, it’s a lot different. The deficit is twice as high. Interest rates are dramatically higher,” Orszag argued, adding: “I think it’s time to worry again about this trajectory.”
“The modern American right doesn’t care about deficits, and never did. All that talk about debt was just an excuse for attacking Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and food stamps.” Paul Krugman. The Republican have never offered to cut one of their own priorities to reduce the deficit.
What is never mentioned by the mainstream press and the GOP is that in the absence of the failed Bush 43 and Trump tax cuts, we would have a balanced budget.
According to the Center For American Progress on March 27, 2023:
“Tax cuts initially enacted during Republican trifectas in the past 25 years slashed taxes disproportionately for the wealthy and profitable corporations, severely reducing federal revenues. In fact, relative to earlier projections, spending is down, not up. But revenues are down significantly more. If not for the Bush tax cuts and their extensions — as well as the Trump tax cuts — revenues would be on track to keep pace with spending indefinitely….
In other words, the current fiscal gap — the growing debt as a percentage of the economy — stems from legislation that cut taxes, disproportionately for the very rich…If Congress wants to decrease deficits, it should look first toward reversing tax cuts that largely benefited the wealthy, which were responsible for the United States’ current fiscal outlook.”
A backlash to Trump and MAGA has begun. The Democrats are winning big in 2025. This is the most under reported story in American politics. The mainstream press is addicted to a “Democrats in disarray narrative.” Despite our divisions, we keep winning elections. We are united against the threat to freedom and democracy posed by Trump and MAGA.
The tide is turning. Be confident going forward. Take nothing for granted. Keep working hard. Blue wave 2026!
Blue wave 2026! Let’s f*cking go!
Sources consulted:
https://thehill.com/policy/finance/477554-trump-legislation-added-47-trillion-to-debt-watchdog/
https://dennispcrawford.medium.com/its-not-a-spending-problem-it-s-a-revenue-problem-dbd677515380