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Biden’s GDP ‘growth’ numbers were fueled by government spending and debt, not the private sector
American Thinker ^ | 11 Aug, 2025 | Jack Hellner

Posted on 08/11/2025 10:48:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber

The media brags that the economy grew faster under Joe Biden than it is under President Trump, but they intentionally hide the reasons why. Here’s the mainstream take, from a new item from AP:

It’s Trump’s economy now. The latest financial numbers offer some warning signs

Job gains are dwindling. Inflation is ticking upward. Growth has slowed compared with last year.

The reason the economy grew last year faster than Trump is because Biden masked the weakness in the private sector with massive government spending increases.

Here are some easily attained facts from the internet:

- FY 2019: Federal spending $4.4 trillion, revenue $3.4 trillion, deficit $984 billion, and total GDP $21.5 trillion. So, spending equaled 21.5% of the economy and the deficit equaled 4.7% of the economy.

- FY 2024: Federal spending $6.8 trillion, revenue $5 trillion, deficit $1.8 trillion, and total GDP $29.2 trillion. So, spending equaled 23.3% of the economy and the deficit equaled 6.2% of the economy.

Revenues, under Trump’s 2017 tax rate cuts, went up 47%, which was over double the rate of inflation which should have been enough to reduce the deficit in 2024 because the COVID emergency had been over for over three years and more people were working than before COVID.

Revenues and the tax rates clearly aren’t the problem. The problem is that government spending went up 55%, which was two-and-a-half times greater than inflation, and that caused the deficit to soar to more unsustainable numbers. From the CBO:

Total Outlays: Up by 10 Percent in Fiscal Year 2024

Outlays in fiscal year 2024 were $6.8 trillion—$617 billion (or 10 percent) more than in 2023. In total, outlays were equal to 23.4 percent of GDP in 2024, down from the recent high of 30.7 percent in 2020, but still above the 50-year average

(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Society
KEYWORDS: economy; fjb; fraud; gdp; leftism

1 posted on 08/11/2025 10:48:06 AM PDT by MtnClimber
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To: MtnClimber

It is what you get when a pedophile marxist steals the election.


2 posted on 08/11/2025 10:48:52 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Keynesian economics


3 posted on 08/11/2025 10:51:14 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: MtnClimber

Contrary to Keynesian economics, the more gov’t spends, the less GDP and the less prosperous the society.


4 posted on 08/11/2025 10:56:09 AM PDT by Jim W N (MAGA by restoring the Gospel of the Grace of Christ (Jude 3) and our Free Constitutional Republic!)
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To: 1Old Pro
Agreed.

And this is why I've always had a problem with the GDP being a measuring stick of the economy's health. With about 1/3rd or so of the GDP being government spending, it's like saying your personal economics is healthy if your wife is running up credit card debt.

5 posted on 08/11/2025 10:57:47 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1 Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
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To: MtnClimber
The numbers quoted in the excerpt are incomplete without showing the annual increase in the national debt. Little known fact - the last time the national debt decreased was 1960, which was Dwight Eisenhower's last year as President.

Since then, there was one year during the Clinton presidency when the national debt only increased by $18 Billion (with a B), but I think Clinton and Gingrich claimed a budget surplus.

Too bad Sarbanes-Oxley does not apply to governments.

6 posted on 08/11/2025 11:01:19 AM PDT by Bernard (Issue an annual budget. And Issue a federal government balance sheet. Let's see what we got.)
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To: MtnClimber
'Biden’s GDP ‘growth’ numbers were fueled by government spending and debt, not the private sector'

Its been that way for decades. The author went out of their way to exclude 2020. Can't forget the massive amount of money that R's and D's threw into the system.

7 posted on 08/11/2025 11:21:01 AM PDT by Theoria
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To: MtnClimber

That’s no surprise at all:

Democrat economics are raising taxes, increasing public sector spending, open borders and encouraging crime.

Republican economics are lowering taxes, decreasing public sector spending, closing borders and thwarting crime.

It’s been that way since I was in college back in the 1970s.


8 posted on 08/11/2025 11:21:05 AM PDT by OrangeHoof (Thank you, Trump, Musk, Leavitt....)
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To: MtnClimber

Government spending, at all levels, is part of the GDP.


9 posted on 08/11/2025 11:21:25 AM PDT by Bob Wills is still the king
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To: Bob Wills is still the king
Government spending, at all levels, is part of the GDP.

It is counted that way. But there is no accounting for if it is productive spending or waste. If it was waste, it took money away from taxpayers who could have used the money productively. I wonder if money spent on drugs is counted in the GDP numbers.

10 posted on 08/11/2025 11:27:28 AM PDT by MtnClimber (For photos of scenery, wildlife and climbing, click on my screen name for my FR home page.)
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To: MtnClimber

Fueled by government spending and debt, and all the benefits went to non-US workers and benefits for illegals. Thanks Joe!! Although the GOP is pretty good at running up spending and debt too despite their talk about fiscal responsibility.


11 posted on 08/11/2025 11:28:40 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard (When the people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.)
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To: MtnClimber

Numbers were fueled by government spending and debt, not the private sector.

That’s a trade mark of the democrats if there ever was one.

Tax and spend addiction never ends.


12 posted on 08/11/2025 11:34:47 AM PDT by Vaduz
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To: OrangeHoof

“Republican economics are lowering taxes, decreasing public sector spending, closing borders and thwarting crime.”

Under Reagan, Bush41, Bush 43, and Trump, the public debt of the U.S. Government increased.

Democrats had a majority in at least one chamber of Congress in some of those years — but not all of them. The debt has increased even when, as now, the GOP has full control.


13 posted on 08/11/2025 12:08:29 PM PDT by Eagle Forgotten
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To: Eagle Forgotten

This is true but they typically advocate holding down the fort on federal spending EXCEPT when you factor military spending. The Republicans do support the military.

Overall, Republicans are disappointing when it comes to reducing federal spending but all you have to do is compare the spending under Obama/Biden versus the spending under Trump to see the difference.


14 posted on 08/11/2025 10:06:35 PM PDT by OrangeHoof (Thank you, Trump, Musk, Leavitt....)
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To: OrangeHoof

“This is true but they typically advocate holding down the fort on federal spending EXCEPT when you factor military spending. The Republicans do support the military.”

The position of many Republicans is that they want big expenditures on the military, big tax cuts, and a balanced budget. It doesn’t add up.

George H. W. Bush called it “voodoo economics” and nobody has yet proved him wrong. There were multitrillion-dollar deficits under Reagan, Bush41, Bush43, and Trump45. I see no prospect that Trump47 will be any different. DOGE will not cut $2 trillion in federal spending, or anything close to it, and the tariffs won’t do all that much either. (Remember that the purpose of tariffs is to encourage domestic production. If domestic sources replace imports, then the revenue from tariffs will drop.)


15 posted on 08/12/2025 9:57:06 AM PDT by Eagle Forgotten
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