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Fleeting presidency, lasting debt: Joe Biden’s real legacy

Joe Biden's farewell to student loan borrowers dovetails nicely with his massive deficit. Repeatedly, spending leads to increasing deficits. Of Biden's many failings, none is more quantifiable than his budgeting, or lack thereof.

“I am proud that we have forgiven more student loan debt than any other administration in history.” Biden recently declaredannounced another student loan cancellation for more than 150,000 individuals at an estimated cost of $4.2 billion.

For a one-term government to seize its legacy, one need only look at spending, budget deficits and huge debts.

The announcement coincided with two reports from the Congressional Budget Office. In comparing actual results to its projections, CBO noted that fiscal year 2024 recorded a deficit of $1.8 trillion. This was equivalent to 6.4% of gross domestic product, up from 6.2% in the previous year. This is the third consecutive increase in the budget deficit, and only the sixth time since 1946 that it has exceeded this level. Meanwhile, federal spending reached $6.8 trillion (23.4% of GDP), 11% above the 50-year average. As a result, federal debt rose to 97.8% of GDP.

CBO also reported that the government ran a $710 billion deficit in the first quarter of fiscal year 2025. This is an increase of $200 billion from the same period in fiscal year 2024. Spending was $175 billion (11%) higher than last year's pace.

Of course, what this has to do with this is that Biden's latest round of student loan forgiveness will only pile even more deficits and debt on top of these, and pass both on to ordinary taxpayers. It's also a microcosm of what Biden has been doing for four years.

Federal spending from fiscal years 2021 to 2024 was $7.7 trillion in deficit, $8.2 trillion higher than the pre-COVID-19 fiscal year 2019 baseline. Almost all of it was on Biden's watch. The first quarter of fiscal 2021 occurred during the 2020 pandemic and under the Trump administration, but the newly reported first quarter of fiscal 2025 totals have already exceeded that.

Biden has spent four years racking up spending, running staggering deficits and racking up massive new debt. Surprisingly, despite this dismal performance, Biden still wanted more.

Lest we forget the cost of these astronomical numbers, look at the trillions of dollars they pumped into the pipeline and fueled inflation.

January 15th Release of CPI data The 12-month inflation rate was 2.9%, and the core interest rate (excluding food and energy) was 3.2%. Both interest rates remain above the Fed's target 2% target.

The only bright news is that both numbers were below the pessimistic inflation expectations that will accompany President Biden's inauguration. Inflation has increased sharply since Biden took office, hurting American consumers. When my term began in January 2021, Annual CPI increase rate was 1.4%. By March 2021, the inflation rate had risen to 2.6% and finally reached a 40-year high of 9.1% in June 2022. Outside of Biden's first full month in office, inflation has never been close to where it was when he took office.

for Biden Apologist Pay attention to the president's words that he is embarrassed by the administration's defeat in November Support rate 34.5% About inflation. The public didn't believe the Biden-Harris hype.

Biden's record shows unrestrained spending, but he still wanted more. only two senators When Democrats took control of the White House and both houses of Congress, they were unable to secure additional funding because of their own party (Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona). In the end, he had to “compromise” as follows. hundreds of billions less.

He also called for more widespread student loan cancellation. He adopted a piecemeal strategy only because he was unable to achieve complete annihilation. two supreme court decisionsblocked in June and August 2023 his plan. Undaunted, Mr. Biden has sought new ways to shift student debt into federal debt. Program modification It predates his administration.

Mr. Biden appeared ready to spend any amount, run any deficit, and accumulate any level of debt. But the Biden administration was rushing to get as much money through the White House door as possible, even as its term neared its end. His time was running out quickly.

For a one-term government to seize its legacy, it is enough to look at spending, budget deficits and huge debts. Unfortunately for American taxpayers, that may be Joe Biden's most lasting impact.

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