Trump's Debt

"As a candidate, Donald Trump promised to get rid of the entire national debt “over a period of eight years.” When this promise was made, the national debt stood at $19 trillion; it has since risen to $21.7 trillion. In the fiscal year ending September 30, it grew by $779 billion, up 17 percent from $666 billion in fiscal 2017. This year, after the Trump tax cuts take full effect, another $1 trillion worth of government IOUs will be issued.

“The deficit is absolutely higher than anyone would like,” says Kevin Hassett, chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers. “Historically unprecedented,” adds Jason Furman, who occupied Hassett’s position in the Obama administration. He feels that with unemployment virtually non-existent, and the economy growing at annual rate of at least 3 percent, we should be paying down debt, not spilling more red ink over the national ledger. Indeed, in 2000, the last time the unemployment rate dipped below 4 percent, tax revenues rose 11 percent and the government ran a large budget surplus.

How did candidate Trump intend to pay off the debt? First, he said he wanted to renegotiate trade deals that he believed were destroying the American economy. Second, drive the economic growth rate to 6 percent annually by reducing taxes and the weighty burden of regulations Barack Obama loaded onto businesses..."

at https://www.weeklystandard.com/irwin-m-stelzer/national-debt-under-trump-rises-to-21-7-trillion