How the 2010s Became the Decade of Debt

The Daily Signal ^ | January 07, 2020 | David Ditch

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

At the end of 2009, the total federal debt was $12.3 trillion—a staggering amount of money.

Now, it stands at an astonishing $23.1 trillion. That’s roughly $180,500 of debt for every U.S. household.

It is important for Americans to understand how we got here, and what lawmakers can do to bring back fiscal sanity.

Poor Handling of the Financial Crisis

The federal government entered the 2010s with sky-high annual deficits. This had two primary causes.

First, the Great Recession reduced incomes and profits, which meant a sharp decrease in tax revenue. A slow economic recovery kept tax revenue relatively low for several years.

Second, legislators used the recession as an excuse to massively increase the amount of federal spending. The 2009 stimulus package in particular led to record-setting spending levels.

President Barack Obama largely sold this additional spending as a way to jump-start the economy. But the structure of the stimulus package told another story. The politically motivated design of the package meant that it was ineffective at growing the economy.

What it did do effectively was grow the national debt. Low tax revenue and high spending combined to generate federal deficits of over $1 trillion per year starting in 2009.

Between the big-government stimulus and bank bailouts, millions of Americans were fed up with how both parties responded to the financial crisis. The tea party movement was born out of this backlash, and the 2010 election put dozens of believers in limited government in the House and the Senate.

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

PING!

[datura]

It was all done by design of America’s enemies in the true deep state. The real estate world was decimated by loose lending under Bush to get Obama into office.

Then Obama did his best to finish us off.

[DoughtyOne]

2010s? Don’t look now but our national debt doubled in the first two terms of George Bush too.

[antidemoncrat]

If I remember that Osama Obama ran a total of $1.25 trillion every year he was in office and now if Pres. Trump even comes close to this the Demoncrats and Lame Street Media has a hissy fit. We can’t control spending as long as we spend $0.25 trillion a year supporting illegals and who knows how much every year supporting folks who are too “mentally distressed” to work or those who just play the system.

[P.O.E.]

Three words:
O Ba Ma

[Theoria]

'If I remember that Osama Obama ran a total of $1.25 trillion every year he was in office '

No, the initial years were 'higher'. Then the deficits starting going lower, sequestration. Now, the spending has expanded again.

[CodeToad]

It’s what happened when Obama ran the economy into the ground and people used credit to survive.

[DannyTN]

You need to look deeper. The backdrop of the 2008 financial crisis was:

• decades of low tariffs and offshoring of American jobs and industries, weakening the economy.
• an oil price shock in 2007. We did very little since the 1970's to avoid another oil price shock.
• A gulf war on terrorism that resulted in nation building and trillions of dollars in expenditures. Regime change was appropriate, but we should have used the oil to reimburse us.

Using fiscal stimulus wasn't a horrible idea, had it been executed correctly.

• Unfortunately much of it was spend funding Obama's handlers and creating new government jobs instead of building infrastructure.
• And while the stimulus was sold to the US as a one time cost, it was rolled into the budget the next year so that it continued indefinitely.
• In addition. George W had kept the war costs accounted for separately. Obama rolled them into the budget so that they also continued indefinitely.

[Alberta's Child]

There's nothing conspiratorial about this. It's the natural result of a political process where government power in an elected government is unlimited.

Any political candidate who promises fiscal responsibility will lose, so nobody bothers with it anymore.

[FormerFRLurker]

Yep, W was just as guilty as 0bama in increasing our deficit. Tax cuts plus 2 wars does not a balanced budget make. The Uniparty is how we got here: https://usdebtclock.org/

[DoughtyOne]

I think you are on target there

He wasn’t presidential material. His father had a global view that I didn’t share. At least he had one.

I think of GW as that young kid that wants to grow up to be management material. Sadly for some kids the years go by, and they never really grow into great leaders. They could be great at something else. Some of them make it to a place way above their abilities to handle.

I think that was GW.

Trump is a born leader.

He’s going 100% at all times. He has a global game plan. He grasps the role of the US at home, regionally, and globally.

He knows how to address issues periferally without having to go nose to nose.

His actions with China have been masterful.

Without confronting it militarily, or announcing what his goals were, he is morphing what it can afford to accomplish.

Even if we do have to go head to head at some point, we will be in a more superior position to do it than we would have been without him.

The fact is, even those who support him may never fully realize the greatness of the man’s actions behind the scenes.

I could have faked it as well as GW. I’m not fit to tie Trump’s shoelaces.

He’s just that good.

[zeestephen]

Trump has written three budgets: FY 2018 - FY 2019 - FY 2020.

Trump has had record tax collections every year.

Unfortunately, Trump has also had near record spending every year.

Obama’s deficit in FY 2017 was $666 billion.

Trump's deficit in FY 2018 was $780 billion.

Trump's deficit in FY 2019 was $984 billion.

In the first two months of FY 2020, Trump's deficit is already $40 billion higher than last year.

[antidemoncrat]

We are spending $0.25 Trillion a year on illegal alien welfare, unknown how many millions/billions on folks who collect Medicare/Social Security benefits because they are too mentally stressed out to work, millions/billions taking care of welfare families because of the same reason and millions/billions supporting educational systems that are teaching our youth how to destroy this Republic. How long before we can’t afford that any more? What will happen if all of a sudden the illegals’ government teat dries up? Loot and burn their way home?

[fhayek]

$23 trillion? That is SOOO January. It’s more like $25.5 trillion now.