If kamala wasn’t tripping herself up enough, Biden is always there to make it worse. But this is terrible timing.
Because Biden delivered a devastating loss to Kamala Harris straight out of left field.
The federal government just posted its worst non-pandemic deficit in history, spilling over $1.8 trillion in red ink, signaling even tougher economic times ahead.
This staggering deficit is second only to the massive spending spree during the COVID-19 emergency.
According to the Treasury Department, the U.S. crossed a grim threshold by paying over $1 trillion in gross interest on the federal debt, a first in the nation’s history.
Despite a significant surge in tax revenue—nearly $480 billion or 11%—the influx couldn’t keep pace with the insatiable spending from Congress, President Biden, and the strain of an aging population. The government ended up spending $620 billion more than it did in 2023.
Fiscal 2024 saw record revenue of $4.9 trillion, but that was no match for the $6.8 trillion in government spending. While lower than the pandemic-fueled spending of 2020, it’s clear the Biden administration’s freewheeling approach to spending is far from over.
Despite the disastrous fiscal outcome, Biden’s team tried to put a positive spin on things. Shalanda Young, the White House budget director, hailed the administration’s so-called accomplishments, claiming Biden’s policies have grown the economy, lowered the deficit, and delivered progress for the American people. Yet, the reality paints a different picture.
While administration officials tout this nearly $2 trillion deficit as an improvement over the pandemic years, it’s a hollow victory. In 2020, the government was $3.1 trillion in the red, followed by $2.8 trillion in 2021.
As emergency spending dried up, the deficit was still $1.4 trillion in 2022, only to worsen in the years since. Last year’s $1.7 trillion gap pales compared to this year’s record-shattering figure.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) attributed the revenue surge primarily to individual income and corporate taxes, but Social Security and Medicare also saw steep increases due to new enrollees and higher rates.
However, the biggest financial sinkhole was interest on the public debt, which shot up by $254 billion in one year, overwhelming even the rise in Social Security and Medicare combined.
Treasury officials tried to downplay the situation by noting that the ratio of debt to GDP isn’t as bad as in the early 1990s.
They also pointed to a slight drop in interest payments in September due to a Federal Reserve rate cut, but that’s little comfort in the face of the mounting interest burden that continues to eat away at the budget.
Biden officials also claimed that the Supreme Court’s decision to block Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan skewed the deficit numbers. The ruling added $334 billion in revenue that would have otherwise inflated this year’s deficit further.
Even with this accounting trick, Biden’s piecemeal approach to student loan forgiveness continues to bloat the education budget, which has more than doubled in the last five years—from $135 billion in 2019 to $305 billion in 2024.
Despite these alarming numbers, the massive deficit barely made a ripple in the presidential campaigns of Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, who both propose more spending and tax breaks.
Former President Barack Obama, stumping for Harris, blamed Trump’s 2017 tax cuts for increasing the deficit, though the latest Treasury data suggests otherwise.
Government revenue in 2024 exceeded earlier projections by $400 billion, meaning the bigger problem lies in the out-of-control spending under the Biden administration.
The CBO’s original spending projection for 2024 was $5.7 trillion. Instead, the government blew past that, spending an extra $1.1 trillion, proving that Biden’s spending spree is pushing the nation further into the fiscal abyss.
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