In his Dec. 29 guest column Marc Warner makes an excellent point about Congress’ failure to do its job [“Is anyone doing their job in Congress?“]. In particular, he notes that since our Congressman Jim McGovern entered Congress in 1997 the national debt has exploded to seven times its former level. The interest on that debt is now greater than our “defense” budget, and those payments compromise our government’s ability to deal with much that needs to be done. Mr. Warner blames both Republicans and Democrats for this sorry state of affairs.
But let’s look at how the debt exploded: Under President Bill Clinton’s leadership, the U.S. had a balanced budget and our government had the prospect of a fiscally sustainable future. After the 2000 election President George W. Bush and a Republican Congress pushed through a large tax cut for the wealthiest Americans that derailed the promise of fiscal stability. Then in 2003 Bush started the disastrous war in Iraq which not only cost tens of thousands of lives, greatly increased an immigration crisis in Europe, and enhanced the power or Iran, but was financed entirely by adding trillions to our national debt. More trillions were added to the debt by the response to the 2008 financial crisis, though that might have been ameliorated if the bankers who caused the crisis had been forced to take more of the losses.
The Bush tax cuts might have expired during the Obama administration but for the efforts of Republican Sen. Jon Kyl who held an important arms control treaty hostage so they could be extended. With the first election of Trump more tax cuts for the wealthy were added, further exploding the deficit. Next came COVID, and even higher deficits, though without that spending our economy would have experienced another Great Depression. And finally, Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” promises to add even more trillions, which makes dealing with the deficit a near impossibility.
The problem of our national debt comes mainly from the Republicans’ insistence that rich people shouldn’t have to pay much in taxes, and Bush’s catastrophic decision to go to war in Iraq. Entitlement benefits also play their part, but they are not the primary drivers in the increase in our national debt. Warner argues that if only politicians would negotiate and compromise, things could be better. But how does one compromise with members of a party whose members practice blind allegiance to Trump, who tolerates no deviance from his Project 2025 agenda?
Joseph Blumenthal lives in Northampton.