What needs to be done and what actually can be done are two different items.
As it stands, our National debt of $36.5 Trillion is mathematically impossible to pay off, and our annual budget deficit is in the hole, and increasing.
It appears Trump is first trying to get our annual budget deficit ( a seperate issue- don’t confuse the two) under control. Getting our annual budget deficit under control ( -$1.8 trillion) will halt our total National debt from increasing.
Doge, Tariffs, etc will get our budget deficit down, but unless he generates more than $ 1.8 Trillion in revenues, waste cutting, etc our National Debt will still increase.
…. The Biden administration rang up a budget topping $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2024, up more than 8% from the previous year and the third highest on record.
Interest expense for the year totaled $1.16 trillion, the first time that figure has topped the trillion-dollar level…. The Biden administration rang up a budget deficit topping $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2024, up more than 8% from the previous year and the third highest on record, the Treasury Department said Friday.
Even with a modest surplus in September, the shortfall totaled $1.833 trillion, $138 billion higher than a year ago. The only years the U.S. has seen a great deficit were 2020 and 2021 when the government poured trillions into spending associated with the Covid-19 pandemic.
The deficit came despite record receipts of $4.9 trillion, which fell well short of outlays of $6.75 trillion.
Government debt has swelled to $35.7 trillion, an increase of $2.3 trillion from the end of fiscal 2023.
One aggravating factor for the debt and deficit picture has been high interest rates from the Federal Reserve’s series of hikes to fight inflation.
Interest expense for the year totaled $1.16 trillion, the first time that figure has topped the trillion-dollar level. Net of interest earned on the government’s investments, the total was a record $882 billion, the third-largest outlay in the budget, outstripping all other items except Social Security and health care.
The average interest rate on all the government debt was 3.32% for 2024, up from 2.97% the previous year, a Treasury official said…. As a share of the total U.S. economy, the deficit is running above 6%, unusual historically during an expansion and well above the 3.7% historical average over the past 50 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
The CBO expects deficits to continue to rise, hitting $2.8 trillion by 2034…”
“and our annual budget deficit is in the hole, and increasing.”
Have you informed Trump?