XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.democrats, or.politics   
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   From: biden.drug.dealers@nytimes.com   
      
   On 30 Dec 2023, Culture War  posted some   
   news:umpqel$1cfnh$9@dont-email.me:   
      
   > Biden is controlled by Obama.  Both of them are wastrels.   
      
   I will leave the Biden reelection announcement to the Twittersphere to   
   discuss. Instead, focusing on one of the most important issues Biden never   
   mentioned in his Tuesday announcement video: the economy, specifically the   
   country’s staggering debt, a looming catastrophe waiting to happen. As the   
   debate over the debt ceiling and fiscal discipline rages on, here are five   
   key economic factors to keep in mind in the coming weeks.   
      
   But before I do that let me provide a bit of context to the scale of the   
   numbers being discussed, as billions and trillions are huge numbers. The   
   next million seconds will take 11.6 days. The next billion seconds is 31.7   
   years. The next trillion seconds is 317 centuries. So, in the context of   
   talking about federal spending, in 2022, the U.S. government spent $6.2   
   trillion. With that, let’s jump into the data.   
      
   Biden has normalized the COVID-19 2020 emergency budget   
   The president and his White House have taken the 2020 COVID-19, one-time-   
   only crisis budget as his administration’s working baseline, rather than   
   the pre-Covid 2019 budget, which had a significant $4.4 trillion price   
   tag.   
      
   In 2020, because of the pandemic, the budget jumped 47 percent to $6.5   
   trillion, as both Democrats and Republicans supported the need for   
   emergency funding. That COVID funding was to sunset as the country   
   returned to normal — as it did last year. Apparently, Biden decided to   
   ignore that crucial point.   
      
   Instead, he saw that supersized budget in 2020 not as a crisis, but an   
   opportunity that could be exploited going forward to pay for what amounted   
   to a historic spending spree that kicked off with the $1.9 trillion   
   American Rescue Plan and drove what became the worst inflation in 40   
   years. During Biden’s first two years in office, he oversaw spending that   
   was 40 percent higher than the pre-COVID 2019 budget.   
      
   Biden’s add to the national debt outdoes Trump   
   According to the CBO, Biden is going to match Trump’s addition to the   
   national debt in just three years, reaching a total of $7.1 trillion over   
   his four years. That would be $1.5 trillion more than Trump contributed   
   during his term, which included the 2020 one-time COVID emergency   
   spending. If Biden’s 2024 proposed budget actually passed, he would add as   
   much to the national debt as Trump and Bush 43 combined. House Republican   
   leaders have made clear his budget isn’t going anywhere; but it   
   illustrates just how out of control Biden’s spending policies really are.   
      
   Yearly federal revenues increased 43 percent in two years   
   In dealing with the debt and deficit, President Biden has had the   
   advantage of a 43 percent increase in federal tax receipts from 2020 to   
   2022, thanks to the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. In 2020, federal income   
   tax revenues were $3.4 trillion. In 2022, they increased to a record $4.8   
   trillion. Revenues from both individual income taxes and corporate income   
   taxes were the highest they have ever been.   
      
   Individual income tax revenues were over $2 trillion in 2021 and 2022 for   
   the first time — a 64 percent increase in 2022 over 2020. Contrary to   
   Biden’s constant complaint that business doesn’t pay its fair share,   
   revenues from corporate income taxes in 2022 were over $400 billion, also   
   for the first time, and an increase of 101 percent over 2020.   
      
   Biden could have been close to a balanced budget   
   If Biden had returned to the 2019 pre-COVID spending levels and rejected   
   the trillions of dollars in excess spending that has characterized his   
   first two years, he could have come much closer to a balanced budget for   
   2022. Adjusting the 2019 spending for inflation, and given the remarkable   
   increase in revenues, the deficit in 2022 would have been only $194   
   billion instead of a deficit of $1.3 trillion.   
      
   However, given the direction of current spending, the CBO baseline   
   projects the annual deficit will be over $1 trillion dollars through 2029,   
   and then it goes over $2 trillion dollars for the years spanning 2030-   
   2033.   
      
   Future proposed yearly spending could top $10 trillion   
   Worse, CBO baseline spending projections show that Biden’s proposed   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
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