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'Yeah, but I won't be here': Trump lays bare the GOP's hypocritical double standard around mounting

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Felex Sanders

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Republicans can be very inconsistent when it comes to the federal deficit, downplaying the importance of rising deficits under President George W. Bush or President Ronald Reagan but declaring that the federal deficit under President Barack Obama would surely be the United States’ downfall. This pattern has continued in the Trump era, with Trump showing little or no concern for how much the deficit will increase under his watch. And when he was reminded how unwieldy the deficit could become in the future after he leaves office—whether that’s in early 2021 or early 2025—his flippant response was, “Yeah, but I won’t be here.”

Trump, according to the Daily Beast, made that comment in early 2017 during a discussion on how high the federal deficit would ultimately become. Rather than focus on tax hikes for the 1%—which he is vehemently opposed to—or spending cuts, Trump seemingly believes that growth alone can reduce the deficit. And even some conservatives are concerned over the indifference he has expressed where the United States’ growing debt is concerned.

In the Daily Beast, an anonymous Trump Administration senior official is quoted as saying that Trump “doesn’t really care” about the “crisis” of a huge deficit and chooses, instead, to focus on “jobs and growth, whatever that means.”

The Daily Beast also quotes a former Trump Administration official as saying that

Trump “isn’t a doctrinaire conservative who deeply cares about the national debt, especially not on his watch” and that the deficit is “not actually a top priority for him.”

AlterNet, December 5, 2018
 
Oh, well, if the Daily Beast says it, you can take it to the bank. :roll: Oh, and by the way the lowest deficit in this century came under GWB - a mere $160 billion, yes billion with a "b".
 

Anything done to deal with the federal deficit MUST come from Congress. Congress knows this. Trump knows this. The people know this.

Why should Trump be concerned about the deficit if nobody else is concerned about the deficit? Heck, nobody has been concerned about the deficit for decades and nobody will be concerned for decades to come. Trump is absolutely correct.

He is right to spend his time and efforts getting the economy in the right place and dealing with foreign trade issues.
 
Bullseye said:
Oh, well, if the Daily Beast says it, you can take it to the bank. :roll: Oh, and by the way the lowest deficit in this century came under GWB - a mere $160 billion, yes billion with a "b".
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Well, if you ignore 2000 and 2001 and put them in another century, that's correct. Otherwise, that's false. The lowest deficits, surpluses in fact, were under the Clinton years and budgets.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/historical-tables/

2000 - +$236B ('surplus')
2001 - +$128B ('surplus')
2002 - ($158) Deficit, after the first round of the Bush II tax cuts.

And the problem with that $160 billion deficit in 2007 is it came at the peak of the biggest bubble since just before the Great Depression, about 80 years prior, so wasn't sustainable and in fact wasn't sustained, because after the bubble came the crash, and the collapse in bubble-fueled tax revenues. By the next year, 2008, deficits had ballooned to $458 billion, and the next year to $1,412 billion, some of that Obama stimulus, but at least $1,000 billion without any Obama era spending.
 
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I can't fault Trump for that - he's no different than Reagan, or Bush II, or Ryan or McConnell or any other GOP leader for the past few decades, and his deficit philosophy is completely in line with the Cheney Maxim, which has dominated the GOP since 1981.

"You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don't matter. We won [the election. More tax cuts] is our due."
 

That's true if you forget the Clinton years.
 
Surpluses are not deficits which was the original topic. But thanks for mentioning those surpluses created under GOP controlled congress. And it was 2007 that had the lowest DEFICIT - $160.7 bill. According to CBO, which was after fours years of Bush's tax cuts at work.
 

That's funny stuff there. Surpluses don't count!! :lamo

And the 2002 deficit of $158B < $160B deficit in 2007.

I also get a kick out of Republican math. For example, the Obama deficits with a GOP Congress for last 6 of 8 years are presumably Obama's fault, but the Clinton surpluses with a GOP Congress for the last 6 of 8 years are actually the GOP surpluses!

BTW, I added to my post a bit to point out the problem of cheering a $160B deficit at the top of the biggest bubble in generations.
 
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The original post was about how republicans don't seem to care about DEFICITS and how they were going to get bigger. I addressed that assertion. And thanks to you I was able to point out that Clinton's surpluses came under republican Congresses.
 

Surpluses not deficits because they represent the ABSENCE of deficits.
Your pretzel logic is astounding.
 
Bullseye said:
The original post was about how republicans don't seem to care about DEFICITS and how they were going to get bigger. I addressed that assertion. And thanks to you I was able to point out that Clinton's surpluses came under republican Congresses.
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Somehow that comes to a screeching halt when the Right tries to pin the majority of the 21 trillion dollar national debt on Obama.

 
Bullseye said:
Oh, well, if the Daily Beast says it, you can take it to the bank. :roll: Oh, and by the way the lowest deficit in this century came under GWB - a mere $160 billion, yes billion with a "b".
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Are you simply uninformed?

In 2000, the Federal government ran a $243 billion surplus in 2000, a $128 billion surplus in 2001, and a $157 billion deficit in 2002.



If so, you have no business making statements such as the ones i'm quoting.
 


Gosh. If only someone had been pointing this out, waaaayyyy back during the 2015/2016 primary season. Like, repeatedly. For a year.


But it's entertaining to see Trump spout the Keynesian "In the future, we're all dead" mentality. Wonder who has defended that who will attack him, and visa versa.
 
Mycroft said:
Why should Trump be concerned about the deficit if nobody else is concerned about the deficit?
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Good point. It's not like he's in a position of national leadership, where he might feel responsible for the future well-being of the country.

Heck, nobody has been concerned about the deficit for decades and nobody will be concerned for decades to come.
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Well, there was a party back in the 2009-2015 era who was pretty concerned about the Deficit. They ran on it, ran on ways to solve it, so on and so forth, as I recall. Can't remember what that party was called.

And it's Decade*. Decade to come.

Medicare now projected to become insolvent in 2026.

But, as Trump points out, as long as you plan on dying in the next 8 years, and don't give a **** about the country after that, it's all gravy!
 
Kushinator said:
Are you simply uninformed?

In 2000, the Federal government ran a $243 billion surplus in 2000, a $128 billion surplus in 2001, and a $157 billion deficit in 2002.



If so, you have no business making statements such as the ones i'm quoting.
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Hm. I'm not positive we want to count "money we borrowed from Social Security" as "revenues that created a surplus", given that they came with, well, you know, that IOU thing. But even if we remove Social Security from the equation, there was a surplus of $1.9 billion in fiscal 1999 and $86.4 billion in fiscal 2000. So any way you count it, the federal budget was balanced and the deficit was erased, if only for a while.
 
Kushinator said:
Are you simply uninformed?

In 2000, the Federal government ran a $243 billion surplus in 2000, a $128 billion surplus in 2001, and a $157 billion deficit in 2002.



If so, you have no business making statements such as the ones i'm quoting.
Click to expand...

These people are simply beyond reason.
 

Donald Trump was never a fiscal conservative :/


Maybe we can all encourage him to raise tariffs more to offset the taxes, I actually like tariff taxation over income tax. Income tax in my opinion is a really inefficient way of doing taxes, it's an extremely expensive and complicated process, and makes American companies less competitive. Lawyers love it.

If you want taxes that target the rich go for death taxes, trust fund taxes.....Out of country bank transfer tax. National property tax(outside of living property). Idk... just SOMETHING other than an income tax.
 
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You are right. This is a partisan issue for the GOP, used when deficits occur under democrats, ignored when under republicans. GOP dear friend of mine grumbled about deficits and debt even as Obama years the deficit lessened steadily. Haven’t heard word one from him past year.

Also right is that this is really Congress’ problem. All spending bills begin in the house, safely in republican hands these past years.
 

Meh, its the same ole same ole. Repubs in power, Dems complain about deficit while Repubs ignore it. Dems in power, Repubs complain about deficit while Dems ignore it.
 
Argue the numbers all we like folks but the President of the United States just said he doesn't give a damn.

No parsing that.
 

It's the same for both Parties. Congress doesn't care.
 
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