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Originally Posted by chefnerd
Interesting that NOBODY addressed under Diaper Don when he decreased revenue with his tax giveaway and then oh yeah spend spend spend
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Quote:
Originally Posted by chefnerd
Perhaps you should revisit your sources. Revenue increased in FY 2018 and 2019 by $100 Billion but the deficit increased by more than $300 Billion. You are equating all of FY 2021 to Trump even though his office tenure for that FY is less than 1/3. No Biden does not deserve the credit either. The credit most likely goes to the States that relaxed/eliminated the Covid restrictions as this is what fueled the growth in employment and therefore the revenue growth. Oh yeah by the way the deficit has been reduced from $3.1 Trillion to as FY 2022 year end just under $1.4 Trillion
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Ok I won't argue too hard about the "spend spend spend." Trump, Ryan and McConnell should have watched the purse strings closer. But their profligacy pales beside the Democrats' in 2021 and 2022. The $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, which brought inflation to the USA before it hit other economies, was passed without a single Republican vote. So was the ridiculously-named Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Goldman Sachs estimates the cost of the subsidies in the IRA will be $1.2 trillion. Who's going to benefit from this? Well, mostly renewable energy companies, which contributed generously to Democrats and their favored causes.
Some Republicans did admittedly vote for the infrastructure and chips acts. That legislation was crony capitalism at its finest, taxpayer money channeled to huge semiconductor manufacturers. And to contractors working on projects favored by the politicians who voted for the infrastructure bill.
It is not fare to describe the Republicans' Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) as a "giveaway." Well, unless you're a fan of thieves and the mafia. If a mob boss tells a merchant he only has to fork over 25% of his earnings instead of 40%, is that a giveaway? Well, maybe if you're a wise guy. More money left in hands of the people and businesses is good. That's what grows the economy, private investment and spending. Tax cuts boost GDP.
And if the TCJA was so terrible, why didn't Democrats overturn any of it when they controlled all the levers of government in 2021 and 2022?
The average federal government receipts as a % of GDP from 1970 to 2019 was 17%. In the 2021 fiscal year, receipts were 17.4% of GDP, and in 2022 they were 19.2% of GDP. In fact, receipts as a % of GDP, since 1946, have only been higher than 2022 once, in the year 2000. If the TCJA was a huge giveaway, why were government revenues as a % of GDP at almost an all time high?
You want to attribute that to a rebound from COVID. Fair enough. And yeah, when the next recession comes along, receipts as a % of GDP will undoubtedly go down. But regardless, if the TCJA caused revenues to plummet, that's just not consistent with what happened in 2022.
Remember, Biden and the Democrats made no changes of significance to the tax code after they took the reins in 2021. They did impose a corporate minimum tax, but that took effect on 1/1/2023.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/FYFRGDA188S
And, by the way, a 1.4 trillion deficit in 2022 is nothing to brag about. That's 6% of GDP! And a large part of the $2.8 trillion deficit in 2021 (13% of GDP!!!) resulted from Biden's $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.
Biden and the Democrats want a European style welfare state. But they're unwilling to raise taxes on the middle class, which is the only way to fund the welfare state. If they keep at it and win elections, the national debt will continue to go up. Federal debt held by the public is already 100% right now. That's not good. The Republicans are wise to push for spending cuts, assuming the Biden administration doesn't use the nuclear option and default. As Barleycorn says, there's a lot of room for the government to cut without stopping payments on our debt.
The debt ceiling and Biden lies
