Tax cuts and pandemic relief measures enacted during the Trump administration added $8.4 trillion to the national debt over the 10-year budget window, according to a study released Wednesday by a t…

Tax cuts and pandemic relief measures enacted during the Trump administration added $8.4 trillion to the national debt over the 10-year budget window, according to a study released Wednesday by a top budget watchdog group.

Discretionary spending increases from 2018 and 2019 added $2.1 trillion, Trump’s signature Tax Cuts and Jobs Act added $1.9 trillion and the 2020 bipartisan CARES Act for pandemic relief added another $1.9 trillion, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), a Washington think tank, found in a study released earlier this month.

“Of the $8.4 trillion President Trump added to the debt, $3.6 trillion came from COVID relief laws and executive orders, $2.5 trillion from tax cut laws, and $2.3 trillion from spending increases, with the remaining executive orders having costs and savings that largely offset each other,” budget experts with the CRFB wrote in a summary of the report.

The only significant deficit reduction enacted by the Trump administration noted in the report was due to tariffs levied on a variety of imported goods, which are calculated to have brought in $445 billion over 10 years.

  • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
    11·
    10 months ago

    You clearly either didn’t read or didn’t understand the comment you’re replying to.

    Let me dumb it down for you some more

    A government incurring debt isn’t inherently bad. That’s a (hypocritical) conservative talking point.

    A government incurring debt to pay for tax cuts for the rich like Trump did is extremely bad and stupid.

    • Evkob@lemmy.ca
      1·
      10 months ago

      A government incurring debt isn’t inherently bad, but I have a hard time imagining a sustainable and effective way to rake up an 8.4 trillion debt in four years.

        • Evkob@lemmy.ca
          0·
          10 months ago

          I’m all for massive public infrastructure spending, but I’d rather tax billionaires and corporations than incur trillions in debt.

          Of course, I’d still rather be in debt for infrastructure spending than for tax cuts.

          • novibe@lemmy.mlEnglish
            01·
            9 months ago

            Taxes don’t fund spending tho. Taxing billionaires should be about just taking money away from them.

            Taxes actually have two purposes, guaranteeing money circulates and is legitimate, and removing money from the economy. That’s it basically. With the caveat that local taxes do fund spending many times, like for school budgets etc.

            But all federal spending is completely decoupled from taxes. The government just “prints” the money. They actually digitally credit certain accounts with the money, but it’s the same shit.

            Like if the government passes a budget of 1 billion for infrastructure, they will literally just change some numbers in “key strategic accounts”, like big banks, government agencies, ministries etc. That money doesn’t come from anywhere, it’s literally created out of thin air.

            And if all that new money is absorbed by productive forces, there is 0 inflation. Only if the money is absorbed by unproductive forces that inflation happens. Like the money just going to rich people’s pockets, there will be inflation. Cause they will just buy more and more assets, without any new assets being created by the “new money”. And well, more demand for the same amount of goods is inflation.

            • Viking_Hippie@lemmy.world
              0·
              9 months ago

              Taxes don’t fund spending tho

              What kinda nonsense claim is that?? Of COURSE they do!

              Taxes (…) removing money from the economy.

              More absolute nonsense. Taxes are paying your part to live in a civilized society. Public programs, which are PART of the overall economy, are an example of what taxes do.

              all federal spending is completely decoupled from taxes.

              Of the dozens of times you were dropped on your head as a child, how many would you say were intentional?

              That money doesn’t come from anywhere, it’s literally created out of thin air.

              Like 99% of all money

              And if all that new money is absorbed by productive forces, there is 0 inflation. Only if the money is absorbed by unproductive forces that inflation happens

              That’s not how money, absorption, production or inflation works

              more demand for the same amount of goods is inflation.

              That’s not it either. The majority of inflation is greedflation.