The widening budget deficit story is the gift that keeps on giving for market satirists thanks to the multiple layers of embedded irony and innumerable punchlines that basically pop up and write themselves.
This dead horse probably wouldn’t even be worth beating were it not for how hilarious it is that the party of fiscal rectitude is being run by a guy who once proclaimed himself “the king of debt” and who is now ballooning the deficit to pay for fiscal stimulus at a time when the unemployment rate is still sitting near a 48-year low.
In essence, Trump is running a banana republic. He’s piling debt-funded fiscal stimulus atop an overheating economy and then demanding rate cuts as part of a public smear campaign against the head of the central bank who was recently compelled to show up for dinner at the executive’s residence, deputy in tow.
That’s right out of the banana republic playbook and we were shouting about the prospects of Trump going the Erdogan route a full six months before the infamous Joe Kernen interview that started it all.
The GOP (and especially Larry Kudlow) continue to insist that the tax cuts will pay for themselves and that this time around, supply-side economics will work, despite historical precedent that’s even more suspect than Trump’s record as a businessman.
Last summer, Kudlow famously told Maria Bartiromo the following about the deficit:
Got that? According to Larry Kudlow, recession forecaster par excellence, “the deficit was coming down and it was coming down rapidly.”
You almost felt sorry for Kudlow when he said that because everyone with any common sense knew it would become a bad meme in relatively short order and sure enough, the deficit subsequently ballooned and Donald Trump became the proud owner of the record for most interest paid in a single year.
Read more
Will Someone Get Larry Kudlow On TV So He Can Explain This Ballooning Deficit?!
Well, Treasury is out with their monthly statement and guess what? The deficit ballooned to $319 billion in the first three months of the government’s fiscal year. That’s up a truly “impressive” 42% from the same period last year.
This is not a particularly pretty picture:
Needless to say, this just exacerbates concerns about the worsening US fiscal outlook and it imperils America’s credit rating at a time when the national debt now sits above $22 trillion.
Meanwhile, the extremely contentious environment in DC threatens to make the debt ceiling debate even more perilous and prone to brinksmanship than “normal”. Hopefully, the fact that lawmakers were able to come together to strike a deal that averts another shutdown suggests the debt limit might not turn into a nightmare over the summer, but you never know with this administration.
All of this is made immeasurably funnier by the fact that Mick Mulvaney is part of the administration. Although most readers don’t need this reminder, it’s still hilarious to read Mick’s Bloomberg bio in the context of the above:
How’s that worked out? Well, not great (“again”). As Treasury’s monthly reports continue to show, Mick has most assuredly not “saved our country from drowning in red ink”. In fact, thanks to inexplicably agreeing to be the OMB director for the “king of debt”, Mick, legendary budget hawk, is now associated with one of the worst episodes of fiscal largesse in recent memory.
Of course now he’s chief of staff, which means he’ll at least be spared the humiliation of having to reconcile, in front of Congress, spending $30 million on Trump’s now-scrapped military parade with his (Mick’s) infamous 2010 declaration that “we can’t spend money we don’t have.”
Coming full circle, this situation will likely continue to deteriorate under Trump as the US stares down a future of trillion dollar deficits by 2022.
But don’t worry, because thanks to the tariffs, the money is just “pouring into our Treasury.”
In fact, “we’re filling up with billions of dollars” and that should easily square this circle, right Pete? “Pete. Thanks Pete.”
MMT at work!
Heis…How about breaking up the monotony of your day after day after day Trump-bashing, by educating us on the mistakes or actual acts of wrongdoing by Obama, Clinton, Clinton, Bush, and Bush. Your obsession with Trump indicates that you are among the legions of media people having that same herd mentality, suffering from the malady known as “Trump derangement syndrome.” Other administrations were much more secretive and the media protected them and gave them a pass on a great many things. And the deep-state protects them to this very day, while they relentlessly interfere with our duly elected President. Lets move on, and get over the fact that neither the Democrat nor the Socialist won the election. And please give us some info on how many trillions of debt Bush and Obama and their Congresses created. And where in the hell did all that money go? Could there possibly have been conflicts of interest?….Misappropriation?….how much went to foreign countries?….How much went to shovel-ready or actual infrastructure?…..How much went to the too-big-to-fail banks that are even bigger now? We are told “that now there is sufficient liquidity”….What does this mean? We are told that our debt is now 100% of GDP, but thats Ok, we only need to show that we are taking steps toward getting spending under control….what does that mean? Hope there are some things here that you will address in future articles.
This ““Trump derangement syndrome” — isn’t a real thing. It’s a term Trump made up.
You are parroting conspiracy theories from right-wing propaganda outlets and you are never – ever – going to get that kind of Alex Jones-ish content on this site.
If that’s what you’re looking for, you should look elsewhere.
Additionally, if you’re wondering why people talk about Trump so much these days, it’s because he’s president. Generally speaking, people tend to talk about the current president a lot, especially when he spends his every waking hour doing and saying things that are patently absurd.
Also, the “deep state” thing is absurd. Again: this is not a conspiracy theory website and it never will be. I am a trained political scientist, not some internet profiteer trying to get rich off click bait. There are plenty of those portals out there, and they will be more than happy to have your clicks.
and I mean, your comment seems to betray a lack of willingness to come to terms with reality. you talk about debt — Trump is issuing it to fund stimulus we don’t need. issuing debt to fund tax cuts when the unemployment rate is at a 48-year low is unheard of. it’s preposterous. it doesn’t make any sense.
and when it comes to the banks, you do realize Trump is working every, single day to deregulate the banks, right? in other words: he is doing precisely the thing that you are implicitly criticizing.
you seem to be another fan of his that is willing to suspend disbelief and pretend that the facts which are staring you in the face aren’t staring you in the face.
when that little voice in your head whispers to you that maybe – just maybe – Trump is in fact just as dishonest and moronic as he sounds/looks, maybe you should consider the possibility that the little voice is telling you the truth.
I don’t know what is little about any voice saying Trump is a moron. That would be like stuffing a mute in a tuba.
When the the centrist Republicans claiming to be fiscal hawks caved on the $1.3 trillion spending bill in March 2018, the Republicans lost all credibility on fiscal matters now and forevermore. Heisenberg is actually pretty restrained inasmuch as he is able to recount how the Republicans are pissing away the future simply by skewering Kudlow/Trump/Mulvaney with their own words. I would say that history is going to look back sadly on this red ink debacle, except that the current Republican-fueled binge is going to be eclipsed many times over in the next couple decades by a Fed-backed AOC and friends. And the right won’t be able to do a damn thing about it because they have (long since) ceded the high ground on spending (not to mention monetary policy!). I do agree that we shouldn’t let Bush II or Obama off the hook; their recklessness certainly made it easier to kill off the fiscal hawks. I blame McConnell.
Thank you for your level-headed commentary. Regarding the current federal budget, I recall Trump saying that he signed off on the bloated budget only because we urgently need funding to rebuild the military. As you know, he was not getting much help from his own party to come up with a more fiscally responsible budget…. It seems like an eternity, but it has only been two years. It remains to be seen whether or not he can reverse decades of damage done to this country by prior Congresses and Administrations. Business as usual has been billions of unjustified, wasteful spending by those politicians while they enjoy their privileged lives in the country clubs called the House and Senate.
And yes, It has been damaging to our country having McConnell as Senate leader. Squandered opportunity by Ryan and McConnell.
You say it has only been two years, but at most, Trump is over a quarter through two four-year terms. Possibly, he is over half way done, and the third year of his Administration is showing to be no better fiscally than the last two. On the spending side, it HAS been business as usual, if not worse!, because the spending caps have been busted and the debt ceiling suspended under unitary Republican control of all three branches of the national government. The deficit is coming from tax cuts that benefit mostly those, like Trump, who literally reside in (or govern from) country clubs. There is no logical argument you can make about current politics that does not explicitly implicate Trump as well, and it is laughable that you are throwing “What about…?” smokebombs about Presidents from a generation ago and complaining about content and opinions Heisenberg puts on a site literally called Heisenberg Report.
I’m a trained political scientist too, and I feel obliged to point out that Trumpo is only in power because he managed to persuade a bunch of educationally subnormal voters using blatant lies to ignore reality and vote for a la-la land of free money, no n***gers and other repulsive racist bigoted misogynist shit they not-so-secretly share with him. Be proud. You’re part of the horde of less-than-human flotsam who are actively working to destroy society, and harking back to Obama, Clinton, Jefferson or ‘Ug’ the caveman who lived next door in 10,000 BC is just a retarded attempt at misdirection. Bit of news for you, that level of ‘sophistication’ on;y works on those of your ilk. BTW, if you don’t know what ‘ilk’ means, feel free to ask.
You are a perfect example of the grungy ones suffering from the Trump obsession/derangement syndrome. God help us if you are a schoolteacher….By the way, the best thing to do is to ban hate speech, not free speech….But then we would never hear from you again….and your arrogance and nastiness is off the charts.
Keep jigglin’ them juggs, sonny. And swigging on the hooch in that barrel. Try not to get so smashed you marry your own sister. Again.
sunnydog, just get on over to ZH (if you aren’t there already) and rock-on…
help me out, I don’t know ZH….thank you.
Sunnydog, H and the others may not want to engage you in “whataboutism” but I thought I would give it a shot. But, first I think you really need to backup to Saint Ronnie to track where the tracks of fiscal responsibility were left. After the Carter administration, the US had slightly under $1T in debt (9.97). At the end of the Reagan years, we had $2.86T in debt for a 186% increase. The last times a president had more of a %increase it was exiting a war such as WW2 and WW1. For example, Truman 2.9%, Ike 8.6%, Kennedy 7.9%, Johnson 13.5%, Nixon 34.3%, Ford 47.1%, Carter 42.8%. This amounted to a leveraged buy-out of the USA by the 1% as their tax rates were cut dramatically as the Gipper engaged with the Democratic Congress in a full-scale Keynesian stimulus event. Bush 1 continued but not as drastically with only 54.4%, “read my lips” and all. Clinton then arrives and runs up only 31.6% and actually almost balances the budget for one year. Next of course comes Bush 2 who achieves a 105.1% increase with full Republican Congressional control for 6 of the 8 years. Lastly, in my analysis, is Obama who through the first 6 years was at 52.4% increase with only two years of a Democratic Congress. That’s when I stopped tracking these things. One ratio i looked at was the % change of GDP/% change of debt..i.e. is additional debt buying equivalent or higher growth “good debt?” perhaps. From 1959 to 1974 that ratio was >1. Ford’s three years were all <1. Carter hit >1 in 3 of 4 and he was a “bad” president. For Reagan and Bush 1, they never achieved >1 so that’s 12 straight years. Actually, 14 because Clinton “missed” on his first two as well. His last 6 were all >1, 2000 was over 20%! Then, the 8 Bush 2 years….all less than 1 with the first negative ratio since Ike in 1957 but that was good because debt was falling and 1949 under Truman when the GDP fell. Obama hit >1 in 2015 and like I said i stopped there. What’s the consistent theme here? Republican presidents love to cut taxes and spend like drunken sailors to detrimental effect would be my conclusion. Facts are stubborn things but they are truth.
Sincerely,
The Smart Anonymous
Thank you, S.A., now we are getting somewhere. I am wondering if you could bring your analysis up to date. I am not in academia, I have been out in the private sector, working and paying taxes.
You are showing bias in your conclusion, the Democrats also have been heavily involved in the accumulation of our national debt.
SDJJ, I am not in academia and I also work and pay taxes. I am unsure why you would assume I am an academic. Perhaps it is obvious I attended higher education? Perhaps, my conclusion was a tad broad and I should have said Republican presidents over the last 40 years or so. And of course, I could have looked for more conclusions regarding Democratic presidents, but the data is more muddled and it’s not a clear and obvious trend. 20 straight years from Reagan through the Bushes is pretty clear. I researched all the information myself from public sources and compiled it.
I do find it interesting that you say “duly elected” when there seems to be clear evidence that multiple people including the campaign manager (not a low-level coffee boy) were meeting and sharing data and info with the Russians and WikiLeaks to enable them to intervene to help Trump be elected. And all of these people chose to lie to cover it up, which is highly suspicious. And of course Trump has fired people to slow down or hopefully stop the investigations aided and abetted by the House Republicans who were covering tracks and obfuscating rather than providing their Constitutional duties for oversight. To me that’s not duly elected, that’s elected but tainted.
Here are my takes on the biggest mistakes made by each President going backwards: 1) Obama: a) Presidenting while black, b) underestimating the Republican resolve to block any and every achievement i.e. McConnell’s goal of making him a 1 term President, c) being too practical and not going big enough: health care was a Republican plan not radical, the stimulus was too small and/or not targeted properly because of “it had to include tax cuts”, playing along with a grand bargain on entitlements, etc. 2) Bush 2: a) Iraq War, b) tax cuts, c) lack of regulation and oversight of the banks 3) Clinton: a) Repeal of Glass-Steagal, b) triangulation on crime sentencing, c) overlooking of some genocides but not all 4) Bush 1: a) Iran-Contra pardons, b) nominations of Clarence Thomas and Dan Quayle, c) Willie Horton ad, d) failure to stop out of control spending, e) refusal to sign FMLA and 5) Reagan: a) Southern Strategy (announced campaign from Mississippi where two were slain for voting rights), b) out of control spending/tax cutting, c) breaking of labor unions, d) ignoring AIDS crisis, e) Iran-Contra, f) having Alzheimer’s covered up to remain in office, g) blaming government for problems, h) Iran hostages followed by arms sales to Iran..hmmm sounds fishy! perhaps negotiating with a foreign government prior to taking office is wrong?
The SA
“The Smart Anonymous” — hahaha I see what you did there! good one!
Oh, and I liked your comment too 😎
What exactly did you see, genius?…From where your head is stuck, there is no daylight, so you can’t see much of anything…
hahaha+
Hey dogshit — like I told you before, you need to go lay in the shade.
Heis….Are you ok? This obsession with Trump is not healthy….Is there nothing noteworthy that you could share about the other presidents? Or events prior to 2017?
Curious, what year did you graduate from college, and what college was that?
You are playing dodge-ball, I must have really hit a nerve with you. Stop it with the boring Trump commentary, you are better than that. And please stop parroting the Washington-Post-style propaganda!
Yes, I think you speak for everyone who comes to Heisenberg Report’s blog to read about “other presidents” or “events prior to 2017”. You obviously already have a helluva lock on events after 2017.
Thanks A, I try to work at it….There’s a lot at stake, seems like most everyone is worried about the future of this country. We are at a crossroads.
Overarching point is that anybody who has been around Heisenberg Report for longer than a few months knows that this is the polar opposite of a conspiracy theory/agitprop site.
we have spent a ton of time over the past two years documenting how those click bait sites operate, how the “American deep state” narrative is nonsense (not to mention an insult to scholars who study countries that actually do have a deep state tradition), how right-wing propaganda feeds on Soviet-style “whataboutism” (e.g., what about what happened during previous administrations, what about Hillary, what about Bush, what about this, what about that), etc.
all of that stuff is lies. it’s poison. and it’s not what our readers want.
so if you’re looking for that on Heisenberg Report (which it seems like you are), you’re wasting your time. if you want to hang around here, you’re always welcome, but you’re never going to find that kind of content here. it’s just not what we do.
Block ’em. They have nothing to contribute to ANY discussion. Unless involved dynamiting fish
‘sunnydogjj” indeed! Could the “jj” – be for “just joking”?
No, stands for judge and jury.
And there we all thought it meant “jigglin’ juggs”, doggystyle. Moonshine rots the brain, BTW.
Some people don’t much care for facts, which is why I enjoy repeating them so many times.
I responded to this stupiddog.jj once before on some other ignorant conspiracy belief – a total waste of time – I think it enjoys the fight, just like his/hers ignorant president does. Decided to just sit and watch this dog die but not in the mood for it today — matter of fact, I submitted a comment on a new column today (thank you Heis!) In Case of Faux National Emergency, Break Constitution and that comment would easily be made on this chain of comments today:
February 15, 2019
ya know, any member of Congress and any judge who condones trump’s outrageous opinions, behavior and abuse of power should be removed from office/bench just for being too ignorant and incompetent to perform responsible conduct and actions required to protect and enforce the Constitution and America!
The only reason this pathetic prick sits in the WH today is due to an ignominious failure to properly oversee and protect our election process which allowed this travesty to begin. First thing should have been to roll back the illegal election – that was the first failure of those irresponsible persons mentioned in my first sentence.
. . . and it is only getting worse by the day. What will be the decisive event to stop this bullshit?
reply to a previous statement: Stop it with the vulgarity, I’ll just call you poopy-centric. Get a life.!!
🖕