President-elect Donald Trump faces one issue that will be the elephant in the room from the start of his presidency; the national debt. The national debt, which has doubled over the past eight-years of President Barack Obama, moved deeper into the red, surpassing $19 trillion, and staying above that dreadful number ironically on “Black Friday.”
It is a fact that the federal debt moved above the $19 trillion dollar mark ($19.9 trillion) on November 22nd according to CNSNews.com on data released by the Treasury. In keeping with “Black Friday,” the black humor was the debt dropped back to $19,897,994,347,700.50 the following day
The outlook for fiscal 2017 is not any better. Experts predict a new and more dismal threshold will be hit early in the New Year, under President Donald Trump. There is no doubt the national debt will hit $20 trillion after the next president is sworn in, a figure double that of when Barack Obama assumed the presidency in 2008, according to The Daily Signal.
The Bipartisan Policy Center, the projector of the national debt, projects $20.1 trillion by March 16th, 2017. More than at any time in the history of the United States, this president will face the stark fact that growing national entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare must be contained or reduced to keep the economy sustainable.
The BPC’s director of fiscal policy, Shai Akabas, told the Daily Signal that while it is uncertain what new revenues and outlays will be, “we project the total gross debt will hit $20 trillion sometime in February.” The question on every lawmaker lips in Washington is, what can billionaire real estate president Trump do to curb these disastrous figures?
Trump will take power in late January with a majority in both Houses of Congress, but the national debt will surely become a political football for the frustrated liberal Democrats clawing for any advantage they can find to portray the new president as “uncaring and a patsy for the rich.”
Meanwhile, the Congressional Budget Office expects the gross debt to hit $20.15 trillion in 2017. At this stage in the national political environment of 50/50 government and American people, Barron’s warns that beyond that stage, the situation doesn’t look like it will improve anytime soon. Why? Here’s a look at the bleak future of doing nothing at all.
President-elect Trump launches his ambitious spending programs and tax cuts, which are expected to add $6 trillion to the national debt over the coming decade. If the debt continues to rise at the present rate of the last eight-years, the annual interest on a $45 trillion debt load would be about $750 billion at today’s super low interest rates.
That’s $1.5 trillion a year in interest payments, as much as the federal government’s total spending over the past five months. If Congress cannot find ways to curb federal spending in a big way, Obama’s debt will increase to country-shattering debt without severe belt-tightening and a robust economy of around six percent GNP per year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHdpV4H5AJM
