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.
Which in turn increases revenue
Perhaps I wasn’t being clear enough. By PUBLIC infrastructure I meant that it would be a government project through and through. No “private-public partnership” bullshit. The government is responsible from top to bottom and as such, none of the trillions of dollars go to shareholders and other rich people skimming off the top.
It would be the biggest public works program since the New Deal, if not even bigger than the New Deal public works programs that were THE most important part of saving the economy from the havoc wrought by the rich and irresponsible back then and it can be again.
As for the rest of your comment, that’s going to be irrelevant with the enormous increase in economic activity and resulting tax revenue to bring DOWN the debt.
Also, I’m not saying not to raise taxes on those who aren’t paying their fair share. It’s possible to walk and chew bubble gum at the same time. I’m just saying that even IF there’s a hypothetical scenario where raising taxes is for some reason not possible, the kind of projects I have in mind would STILL turn a profit from the initial 8.4t investment since all of it is invested right into the tax base and their ability to participate in the economy.
Revenue has largely been flat despite an increase in GDP. explain again how an increase in economic activity- which would be reflected in GDP- increases revenue again?
From the Treasury: