Sunday, February 18, 2018

Bill Crawford: Trumponomics pushes interests costs higher than SS and Medicare

Basic math and what the Wall Street Journal calls "Trumponomics" are headed for a brutal collision.

Here's why.


The national debt is $20.6 trillion and rising. With rates low, annual debt interest costs averaged about $250 billion from 2011 through 2016. As the economy improved, interest rates slowly ticked up. But, now they are expected to surge as the stimulus jolt to an economy already at full employment from Trump's $1.5 trillion tax cut package plus over $300 billion in added government spending drive up inflation – and interest rates – over the next ten years.

Oh, those tax cuts and spending will also push annual deficits above $1 trillion for the foreseeable future, jacking up the debt even more as interest rates surge.

Basic math says higher interest rates times huge and growing debt equals much higher interest costs.

How high?

The Peter G. Peterson Foundation, created to raise awareness of America's long-term debt and how it affects economic growth, projects "interest costs will triple over the next 10 years, soaring from $269 billion in 2017 to $818 billion in 2027."

Even worse, the Foundation says interest costs "are projected to be the third largest category in the federal budget by 2026 (after just Social Security and Medicare), the second largest category in 2046, and the single largest category before 2050."

Larger than Social Security and Medicare? Wow!

Surely, "conservative" Republican leadership can do this basic math?

Maybe not.

“When Democrats are in power, Republicans appear to be the conservative party, and when Republicans are in power, there is no conservative party,” Sen. Rand Paul told TIME Magazine. While on the Senate floor he said, "I can’t in all good honesty, in all good faith, just look the other way because my party is now complicit in the deficits.”

Former conservative Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz chimed in, telling Fox Business, "Republicans have lost every single bit of credibility on the idea that they care at all about debts and deficits."

Sounds like reducing deficits and debt is not a real Republican issue, just one that plays well with the base.

Case in point: In 2013 Sen. Mitch McConnell said, "the most important issue confronting the future of our country is our deficit and debt." That’s the same Mitch McConnell who just ignored the deficits and debt to pass the tax cuts and budget bill.


Tom Nichols, a professor of national security affairs at the Naval War College and self-proclaimed long-time Republican, expressed the growing consternation among many long-time Republicans in a USA Today op-ed.

"Republicans once believed in limited government, fiscal restraint, support for the defense and national security establishments, family values, and a strong American role in maintaining global order," he wrote. "More than that, we were the party that believed in logic and prudence over emotion. Our hearts were perhaps too cold, but never bleeding. Today’s Republicans, however, are a party of bellowing drama queens whose elected representatives blow up spending caps, bust the deficit, and attack America’s law enforcement and national security agencies as dangerous conspirators."

So, maybe the problem is much larger than not knowing basic math. It's not having and adhering to real tenets of conservative Republicanism.


Crawford (crawfolk@gmail.com) is a syndicated columnist from Meridian.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

"Today’s Republicans, however, are a party of bellowing drama queens whose elected representatives blow up spending caps, bust the deficit, and attack America’s law enforcement and national security agencies as dangerous conspirators."

Sounds like you've quoted an old article since ZERO republicans, and certainly not the current president, have disrespected or attacked 'America's law enforcement'. It was your hero, Obama, who did all in his power to turn America against law enforcement and law and order. I think you have your time zones mixed up.

Anonymous said...

Republicans did not want to be blamed for a government shutdown, so they agreed to the Democratic spending demands. They have no b....ackbone. Also Democrats would not agree to fully finding the military without massive increases in domestic spending. The Fed kept interest rates artifically low during Obama's term. They won't do Trump any favors.

Anonymous said...

Under what president was the most dollars added to the debt?
One simple question.

Anonymous said...

Thad Cochran is one of the most profligate foreign debt-fueled deficit spenders in the history of the United State Senate but you'll never hear the MS RINO herd shepherd Crawford even whisper his name in this column of condemnation. There has never been any Mississippian elected to Congress who did not adhere to the "real tenets of conservative Republicanism" more than Thad Cochran.

Anonymous said...

Folks get this twisted all the time, since Reagan the deficit and debt have traditionally risen during Republican administrations or as the result of them. Additionally they are reduced during Democratic administrations.

Anonymous said...

Notice Crawford has never replied to a post following any of his rants. One might assume he's reading the church column posted elsewhere on here and is unavailable.

Anonymous said...

I guess Sessions,the Justice Dept., Special Counsel and FBI aren't considered law enforcement.

Anonymous said...

11:24, Didn't Obama raise our debt more than any president in history?
If I remember he raised it more than all of the other presidents combined.

Anonymous said...

I think bellowing drama queens is exactly right. American politics has ventured into the absurd, nowhere on better display than the B-list celebrity with the emotional wisdom of a twelve year old we elected to the presidency. Also, I’m pretty sure that Obama’s record on the debt is as bad as y’all say only if you pin on him TARP and increased emergency spending in the wake of the mortgage securities fiasco of 2008 that was primarily caused by Republican driven lax lending regulations. Republicans consistently drive up the debt because the truth is that making major cuts in spending wouldn’t fly politically. Americans like tax cuts, and they also like robust programs and services. What we have is two opposing fairy tale parties, neither of which is capable of being honest and demonstrating mature leadership.

Pappy Odaniel said...

The problem with Republicans is that most of the leadership are old bastard Democrats who flipped to Republicans in the 90's because the only principle they operate on is their own political power. So, when they are in the minority they go along with their Democrat buddies spending, shrug their shoulders and say whaddya gonna do? And when they are in power, they just never have quite enough power to pursue a conservative agenda, so they shrug their shoulders and say whaddya gonna do, have to give our Democrat buddies what they want or we can't get anything done. That's the battle cry of the Mitch McConnell, Thad Cochran Republicans...we have to get SOMETHING done...amazing how that something is always blowing out the federal debt, expanding entitlements and getting all your buddies paid...speaking of that... I was told we needed to get Thad re-elected so he could make it rain ...WTH...haven't seen those bags of cash dropping. I guess he's been too busy with wedding plans and honeymoons with Kay...whom he had absolutely no romantic relationship with prior to the last election.

Anonymous said...

"I guess Sessions,the Justice Dept., Special Counsel and FBI aren't considered law enforcement."

Literally, and by definition, they are; however, by practice, recent reputation and how they are viewed by the public and by congress, NO, they are not. The Justice Department for eight years was a political hatchet group. The FBI is the same. Surely you know this.

Meanwhile: "Republicans consistently drive up the debt". Where the hell were you for the eight years preceding 2017? In a gourd patch in Yugoslavia?

Anonymous said...

I'm basically debt free but have suffered the last decade with flat earnings on my
savings, a large part tax deferred. So let interest rates soar.

Anonymous said...

The majority of the debt incurred during the Obama administration was between 08 and '12.This was necessary to clean up the banking and totat financial mess left by Bush.

Anonymous said...

lot of delusional Dixie Democrats that converted to the Republican party showing their true colors on this thread this morning!

"It was your hero, Obama, who did all in his power to turn America against law enforcement and law and order...............Republicans did not want to be blamed for a government shutdown, so they agreed to the Democratic spending demands........ Didn't Obama raise our debt more than any president in history? If I remember he raised it more than all of the other presidents combined...............The problem with Republicans is that most of the leadership are old bastard Democrats who flipped to Republicans in the 90's because the only principle they operate on is their own political power. "

How many Trump Tweets bashing the FBI do we need to show to prove who is the real Anti-Law Enforcement President? How quickly many people forget about the Bush tax cuts and spending increases? Mississippi Republicans forgetting their Dixie Democrat roots!?

Anonymous said...

9:45pm

Kinda cute when you just try to say incorrect BS off the cuff, huh?

The Banking mess was derived from the Bill Clinton era.

The "financial mess" was derived from the progressive nature of Congress in general, on both sides of the aisle. The push to a service society and killing blue collar jobs, the push for just say yes to college for everyone (student loans) and the push that everyone should own a home and where those people own homes should be controlled through lending practices.

The "bailouts" jumped federal spending but were, apparently not one time items because federal spending never fell back down after increasing by $700B in Obama's first year.

Anonymous said...

"The majority of the debt incurred during the Obama administration was between 08 and '12.This was necessary to clean up the banking and totat financial mess left by Bush."

I don't have a car. Where, besides Whole Foods and Rainbow, can I get me summa that Kool Aid? Must be within walking distance of Fondren. thanks...

Anonymous said...

10:04 More than a little of " the banking mess" was from Bush deregulation so that the laws that were in place during the S&L scandal were erased. So banking got to be just like those S&Ls. Banks get to high roll with your money now. Indeed, every money manager does. They will not get into trouble for misleading you or taking high risks in investing your money anymore. And, they can charge you all sorts of fees that are unjustifiable.

All those "more than the house is worth" mortgages added to the loosening of qualifications and insured that even borrowers who might could have succeeded , failed. Or didn't you see all those nice , young, white middle class folks go underwater too?


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