Posted: 12/13/2018
Trigger
U.S. federal debt keeps on rising to unsustainable levels and it has been doing so under President Trump as well.
President Trump Made Some Progress Towards Stabilizing Or Reducing Debt
President Trump’s rescission request in May 2018 to the U.S. Congress of $15.4 billion was a valiant effort and it was a much appreciated step in the right direction, but far from enough. Unfortunately, the chronically foolish Democratic Party failed again by voting it down in the U.S. Senate in June 2018.
Trump also proposed to reform federal government employee salary and contributions so that employees pay more for their lavish benefits. A very welcome reform! (Source 4, 5)
I believe, there were more proposals by Trump to reduce federal expenditures.
A Brief Summary
U.S. National Debt has:
- Tripled since 2000 to now $21.5 billion, while GDP less than doubled
- Relative to GDP, national debt climbed from a very benign 55% in 2000 to over 100% of GDP in 2017. Only good news is that in 2016 and 2017 it stabilized at about 104%.
- Among all OECD countries, the U.S. ranks 5th in terms of highest debt to GDP ratio (in 2015; latest available data), only surpassed only by countries like Portugal, Greece, Italy, and Japan. This is really bad!
- The high national debt of the U.S. and other OECD countries is the major reasons why central banks have kept interest rates at extremely historical low levels for over a decade or otherwise the government net interest payments to service national debt would have become explosive
- Obama added about $10.6 billion or roughly $1.3 billion per year in office. Had Obama and the Democrats not willfully prolonged and exacerbated the Great Recession, this dramatic increase in national debt would not have occurred
- Trump has added so far less than about $2 billion or less than $971 billion per year in office
Here are the hard and very unpleasant facts (in $ billions):
Year
|
Nominal GDP
|
Debt
|
Debt Increase
|
Debt/GDP
|
2018
|
$21,516
|
$1,271
| ||
2017
|
$19,485
|
$20,245
|
$671
|
104%
|
2016
|
$18,707
|
$19,573
|
$1,423
|
105%
|
2015
|
$18,219
|
$18,151
|
$327
|
100%
|
2014
|
$17,522
|
$17,824
|
$1,086
|
102%
|
2013
|
$16,785
|
$16,738
|
$672
|
100%
|
2012
|
$16,197
|
$16,066
|
$1,276
|
99%
|
2011
|
$15,543
|
$14,790
|
$1,229
|
95%
|
2010
|
$14,992
|
$13,562
|
$1,652
|
90%
|
2009
|
$14,449
|
$11,910
|
$1,885
|
82%
|
2008
|
$14,713
|
$10,025
|
$1,017
|
68%
|
2007
|
$14,452
|
$9,008
|
$501
|
62%
|
2006
|
$13,815
|
$8,507
|
$574
|
62%
|
2005
|
$13,037
|
$7,933
|
$554
|
61%
|
2004
|
$12,214
|
$7,379
|
$596
|
60%
|
2003
|
$11,458
|
$6,783
|
$555
|
59%
|
2002
|
$10,936
|
$6,228
|
$421
|
57%
|
2001
|
$10,582
|
$5,807
|
$133
|
55%
|
2000
|
$10,252
|
$5,674
|
55%
|
Sources:
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