I wrote yesterday that the Trump tax plan is yielding significant benefits, but one of my caveats at the end of the column warned that Trump’s weak record on spending undermines the long-run sustainability of lower tax rates.
The latest example of Trump’s profligacy is the $1.4 trillion spending bill for the 2020 fiscal year
that was just approved (this is the “discretionary” money for the parts of the budget that are annually appropriated, so keep in mind that there’s also more than $3 trillion of “mandatory” spending for entitlement programs in 2020).
This pork-filled spending bill became inevitable when Trump surrendered to the Democrats this summer and agreed to bust the spending caps (something politicians also did in 2013, 2015, and 2018).
It’s hard to capture the utterly reckless nature of the new spending bill.
Here’s how Senator Rick Scott described the legislation.
…a giant spending package — 2,313 pages long — that was…negotiated in secret, spends $1.4 trillion, and is chock full of member projects and special-interest giveaways. …more than $4,200 for every man, woman, and child in America.
…This package includes $25 million for the “operation, maintenance, and security” of the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. It includes a $7.25 million increase in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, the largest increase in a decade. …It includes more than $1 billion in new foreign-aid funding without any discussion about what we’re getting for this funding. …This bill spends $1.4 trillion, with no cuts or reforms. …How many more trillions of dollars do we need to spend before we wake up to the danger…? We need to reform the way Washington works, and we need to do it now.
The Wall Street Journal was similarly dismayed, opining about the bipartisan spending orgy and pointing out the real problem is that all this spending violates the Golden Rule of fiscal policy.
Congress has left town for the year but alas not before another bipartisan spending party that has typified the Trump Presidency. …The budget problem isn’t a shortage of revenue. CBO says tax receipts grew 4% last fiscal year,
through September, and 3% in the first two months this year. Economic growth is feeding the Treasury. But spending is growing much faster: 8% last fiscal year, more than four times the inflation rate, and 6% in October and November this year. In addition to the latest discretionary bills, spending on Social Security (6%), Medicare (6.1%) and Medicaid (9.2%) continue to soar this year. Neither party shows any inclination to do anything about those programs, except expand them. Mr. Trump may yet join Barack Obama in the spending record books.
Regarding the final sentence in the above excerpt, I will predict now that Trump will exceed Obama’s profligacy.
And I’ll have the numbers to prove that early next year when I update my data on presidential spending.
In the meantime, I’ll close with this very depressing chart from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
The bottom line is that Republican big spenders are enablers of Democratic big taxers.
- In a couple of years, when there’s a big fight to get rid of the Trump tax cuts, every Republican who supported this awful deal
(including Trump) will be responsible. - When there’s a Democratic president and a big push for class-warfare taxes, every Republican who supported this awful deal (including Trump) will be responsible.
- When there’s a big fight after that to impose a European-style value-added tax, every Republican who supported this awful deal (including Trump) will be responsible.
Gee, isn’t bipartisanship wonderful?
The spike in spending after Obama was handed Bush’s faith-based asset forfeiture Crash and Depression (from banning plant leaves) is much like the one following Bert Hoover’s attempt to enforce the Increased Penalties Act of March 2, 1929, making light beer a chain-gang felony with a fine worth 30 lbs of today’s gold. These matters are conveniently ignored, for the solution would entail less coercion and more individual rights–not market shutdowns to stop flash crashes.
setonmotley – You make a potentially good point, but can you provide any evidence showing that Trump’s budgets proposed “cuts everywhere except Defense”. Can you, for instance, give us a link to some documents supporting your claim? I am not saying I disagree, I would just like to see some supporting evidence.
Not to worry, the deficit spending will stop when the government cannot service the interest on the debt. The economy will collapse, the US will be bankrupt, and the government will be able to spend only what they can extract in taxes. It won’t be nice, but it will cure the financial ills of the nation and end obligating future generations to pay for today’s debt. Hope you are not around to see it though. Just ask the Soviets/Russians!
setonmotley writes, “So what exactly is he supposed to do?”
Veto. Veto. Veto. If Trump cared about runaway spending, he would use his veto power. Trump would use his veto power over-and-over until either Congress overrode his vote or Congress slowed spending growth. Unfortunately Trump doesn’t give a damn about runaway spending, and he wants to be crowned the King of debt.
Re: “Trump surrendered to the Democrats this summer”
Trump didn’t surrender. Surrender implies that if he could have had his way, the caps would still be in place. Trump doesn’t want the caps. Trump is on the side of more spending, and caps just get in the way of his spending.
That is a factor. Ryan was in charge of the House when Obama was on his spending spree. I guess thats one issue both parties agree on.
politicians use tax money to buy votes… it’s no mystery… and they are unlikely to control spending unless they are forced to do so… left to their own devices… they will bankrupt the country in order to get themselves re-elected… that’s why we have article V in the constitution… there is already a move afoot for an amendment to cap spending…. and another to limit terms… so far 18 states have signed on… it might take some time…. but it can be done….
Read some of the other comments and check on who is in charge of the House.
To all of those that pointed out CONGRESS Is responsible for appropriations and NOT even doing that in good order. GMTA
– Dan, Did you happen to notice that in the spending bill there is a special helping of pork specifically reserved for the United Mine Workers of America to bail out the coal miners pensions and health care? Here the government is once again picking the winners and losers in the pork bailout game! How many votes are they purchasing with my tax dollars here at what total cost per Coal Miner? Rich Forshey
Of course the spending is a travesty and insanely out of control. Of course the politicians who vote for it all are pathetic weasels who know better but can’t help themselves. But we are kidding our selves if we do not recognize and admit the fact that the reason for it is that The People are stupid and idiotic and pathetic and insanely greedy and would refuse to vote for anyone who does not continue to stoke the gravy train of free loot to be passed out.
Of course The People have been carefully brainwashed to believe in the Welfare/Warfare State, but, it is every individual’s moral responsibility to resist being brainwashed; I believe a careful and honest reading of the Bible supports me in this contention, that each and everyone one of us needs to repent of our brainwashedness.
Bottom line, only if and when The People repent and turn from their wicked spendthrift ways will the politicians be willing and able to do things differently.
I’m not saying this to excuse Orange Man and the Republicans, I’m just trying to point out political facts.
I just checked the Constitution – and it turns out US federal government budgets don’t originate in the White House.
They originate in the House of Representatives.
Trump has submitted great budgets every year he’s been in office. Cuts everywhere except Defense.
Every single one of which the profligate Congress immediately ignores.
The only thing Trump can do about it – is veto and shut down government.
Which the Left and Never Trump Land assails as the end of the Earth spinning on its access.
So what exactly is he supposed to do?
[…] via Trump’s Record on Spending Gets Worse Every Year — International Liberty […]
Trump is worse than Obama at deficit spending. Most of his supporters overlook this huge fact.