A rainy, gray sky tops the U.S. Capitol dome on the first day of the new session of Congress in Washington, U.S. January 3, 2017. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Jonathan Bydlak, The Hill: Missing: Fiscal sanity in Washington
While it is often an overused and vague term, this year is showing that the “historic debt” not only has a definition, but it is becoming all too real for Americans heading into 2019.
Bloomberg reported: "Total public debt outstanding has jumped by $1.36 trillion, or 6.6 percent, since the start of 2018, and by $1.9 trillion since President Donald Trump took office, according to the latest Treasury Department figures. The latter figure is roughly the size of Brazil’s gross domestic product."
If this year’s debt growth rate is sustained through the end of the year, it would be the biggest jump in percentage terms since the last year of President Barack Obama’s first term.
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WNU Editor: U.S. tax cuts and deregulation have stimulated more economic activity and employment. In turn this has resulted in more government revenues .... but the budget deficit is still growing uncontrollably. This tells me only one thing .... this is not a tax problem, this is a spending problem. And it is going to get worse. The stock market is now a "bear" market, and the revenues that governments collect from the stock market are going to be lower. Here is an easy prediction .... expect even higher deficits in 2019. And if there is a recession .... you can take this to the bank, this is going to be a crisis. And while quantitative easing may help in such a crisis .... 8 years of it under the Obama administration has resulted in a 4 -5 trillion shortfall that cannot grow any further. There are no longer any easy options for the Congress. They can either raise taxes and thereby guarantee a slower economy and less revenues (even thought they are raising taxes), or they can cut and/or freeze entitlements, which I do not see happening under a Democrat Congress.
