The most perplexing thing about President Joe Biden’s stance on the debt ceiling issue is that the staggering national debt does not seem to bother him.
In remarks Biden made the other day, he noted that the national debt has “accumulated over 200 years.” And he also noted the debt increased under President Donald Trump.
But the president’s selective memory chooses to overlook that when the Obama-Biden administration took office in 2009, national debt stood at 60 percent of GDP. When they left eight years later, it was at 100 percent of GDP.
We also must note that from 1965 to 2008, the annual average growth of the U.S. economy was 3.1 percent per year. From 2009, when the Obama-Biden administration started piling on the debt, to today, average GDP growth has been 2.1 percent year.
But let’s forget, for now, the “who did what” of the past. Let’s focus on today.
What is clear is that we have entered uncharted, and dangerous, territory. The Congressional Budget Office forecast of national debt reaching 118 percent of GDP is a historic high. And then CBO goes on to project that the debt will reach almost twice GDP over the 20 years after.
Why doesn’t this bother our president?
If House Republicans, under the leadership of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, had not passed a bill to set conditions for spending cuts as a quid pro quo for authorizing an increase in the debt ceiling, most Americans would not even know the critical situation we are in. Our president would have been just fine authorizing the debt ceiling increase, taking us further into unchartered debt territory, with little fanfare.
Biden has released a video defining his upcoming reelection campaign.
The theme that he is championing is freedom.
“Freedom, personal freedom, is fundamental to who we are as Americans,” is how he opens the video.
But what can our president be thinking about?
The vision of America’s founders was freedom. It’s why the focus of our Constitution, as originally crafted, was to limit government.
Not so complicated. More government, less freedom.
Today’s clear direction of the country, particularly under the leadership of Biden, is toward much more government and much less freedom.
We’ve got staggering national debt because politicians choose to not be honest with citizens by raising their taxes every time they increase spending. Instead, they spend and borrow.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, federal expenditures accounted for 25 percent of our GDP in 2022. In 2015, they accounted for 20 percent.
One not-so-subtle hint where Biden stands is his calling the $4.5 trillion in spending cuts over 10 years proposed by Republicans “draconian.” The total spending in the budget recently submitted by Biden calls for $82.2 trillion in spending over 10 years. $4.5 trillion cuts out of $82.2 in spending is anything but draconian.
What does all this mean for minority Americans Biden claims to care so much about?
The median age of the nation’s white population is 43.7; of blacks, 34.6; and Hispanics, 29.7.
The growing debt burden over time will fall disproportionately on these younger black and Hispanic Americans. A legacy of massive debt, bloated government, sclerotic economic growth, and life on an ever-expanding government plantation is the future Biden is laying out for the minority Americans he allegedly cares about.
A just-issued report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office bears the title “The Nation’s Fiscal Health: Road Map Needed to Address Projected Unsustainable Debt Levels.”
Everyone seems to understand that national debt larger than our entire national economy is a crisis needing attention.
Everyone, that is, except Biden.
If America’s future is to be free, the work needed today is to get government back in line, the point of the Republican Limit, Save, Grow Act. Otherwise, we can continue the current ride to socialism and a future as a country that once was great.
