Debt and deficits now "secondary concern" to economic growth - Pence

[Edge-]

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/02/07/penc...or-growth.html

Vice President Mike Pence defended deficit expansion under the Trump administration during a CNBC interview Friday, saying that debt and deficits are secondary concerns compared to economic growth.

Pence, who spoke to CNBC’s Wilfred Frost at the White House on the heels of President Donald Trump’s victory lap over his acquittal in the Senate’s impeachment trial, maintained that focusing on growth will solve long-term fiscal challenges.

“The president came into office and he said, ‘First and foremost, we have to restore growth,’” Pence said.

“Deficits and debt are right in line, but it is first about getting this economy moving again and we really do believe the trajectory of this economy,” Pence said.

Pence’s remarks came less than three hours after the Labor Department released much-better-than-expected monthly payroll figures for January.

Nonfarm payrolls rose 225,000 for the month, far exceeding the 158,000 expected by a survey of Dow Jones economists. The unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.6%, but the labor force participation rate also increased 0.2 percentage point to 63.4%.

But under Trump, U.S. budget deficits have grown at a level not seen since the middle of the Obama administration, when the government was working to pull the country out of the Great Recession. The fiscal deficit topped $1 trillion in 2019, the highest level in a calendar year seen since 2012, according to Treasury Department figures released last month.

Asked about the debt-to-GDP ratio — which has grown from Obama’s tenure in the White House to Trump’s — Pence said Friday that “in a second term, we’ll continue to address those issues.”

But Trump’s belief, Pence added, is that “the real long-term solution to the fiscal challenges in Washington, D.C., is making sure the budget of every American is growing.”

“Once we get this economy rolling,” he added, “we’re going to work real hard, not just to get President Donald Trump four more years in the White House, but we’re going to make sure we have a Republican Senate and a Republican House to keep America growing and to deal with those long-term fiscal challenges.”

The economy is already rolling, according to the president’s own assessments. Trump has often called the economy under his watch the greatest in American history.

“I am thrilled to report to you tonight that our economy is the best it has ever been,” the president said in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

Now, all the lies notwithstanding, can we finally admit that the Republican party has never, ever actually cared about deficits or the national debt? Because this administration, especially with a Republican controlled House/Senate for the first two years, has blown up deficits and upped the debt in return for rather lackluster growth that's largely the same as it was before their new economic policies were put into place.

[Breccia]

"but it is first about getting this economy moving again"

That sounds like admission it's not moving.

[mvaliz]

"Debt and deficits now 'secondary concern' to economic growth"

...

... Isn't that basically the mantra of every person with a gambling addiction? o_O

[jakeic]

The gentle massaging of the truth that politicians practice with regards to economic news has turned into a full on choking.

[Sorshen]

But democrats would have you believe that rising debt is a non-issue. That was the rallying cry when Obama was spending like crazy.

For the record, both sides have never cared. I thought maybe with a non-politician in office this might change, but no.

Except Obama dealt with a recession. Trump is running the deficit like he's in one.

[Skroe]

The debasement of conservatives to the altar of the Trump Cult continues.

[Shadowferal]

Another reason why the GOP...and Trump, consistently curse the name Clinton; the one guy that balanced the budget and left office with a surplus. (to be squandered by Bush)

[Skroe]

This is every GOP administration since Reagan. They only want to cut the debt and deficit around the welfare programs, but when it comes to military spending or tax cuts for corporations the magic of the (Free Market) will trickle down upon those lowly peasant.

Entitlements, not the military and other discretionary spending, are the largest drivers of deficit growth. The end.

The debt grows because we under tax for our spending levels.

[Breccia]

That was the rallying cry when Obama was spending like crazy.

Obama halved the debt. Your ire appears to be misplaced.

EDIT: Sorry, halved the deficit.

[Edge-]

But democrats would have you believe that rising debt is a non-issue. That was the rallying cry when Obama was spending like crazy.

Literal fiction. Back it up with evidence, and please be sure to continue ignoring that the deficit largley went up due to a mixture of Bush Jr./Obama spending to get us out of the Great Recession, and paying for the extremely expensive Afghanistan/Iraq wars that the Bush Jr. administration got us into.

Democrats have never had issues with bigger spending, but they usually call to offset those expenditures with additional tax revenue. Something which Republicans have never accepted as they believe the fairy tale that cutting taxes is somehow the best way to raise tax revenue...something which has never played out in reality despite dozens of attempts.

For the record, both sides have never cared.

Democrats care, but they've just been open that sometimes you need to raise the deficit a bit to deal with reality before bringing it back down.

It's been Republicans that so regularly trotted out the "Deficit Clock" and made a big stink over it. The hypocrisy is painfully predictable, as is the rewriting of history from conservatives on the matter.

Obama halved the debt. Your ire appears to be misplaced.

deficit* Debt continued to grow, but the annual deficit was reigned in considerably nearing the end of his administration.

[Ivanstone]

I thought maybe with a non-politician in office this might change, but no.

What does that have to do with anything?

That non-politician in particular has made a life time of borrowing like a madman and then not paying off his debts. He sounds perfect for continuing the GOP policy of running up the deficit and then letting someone else deal with the fallout.

[Shadowferal]

I can feel my brain a-changin', acclimating to the madness
I can feel my outrage shift into a dull, despondent sadness
I can feel a crust growing over my eyes like a falcon hood
I've got the normalization blues
This isn't normal, this isn't good

I'm detached and I'm distracted All keyed up but unproductive
Vacillating between being all excited and disgusted
And then dozing lackadaisically in this bubble
Where I've made my mental home
Connection's more important now than it ever was
But I'd rather be alone

And when we talk about the president
We're either pissed off or we're giggling
About an atrocity he's committing
Or some stupid shit he's tweeting
He's a symptom and a weapon of the evil men
Who really run the show
The ones who melt down human beings into money
Like a cruel Sorcerer's Stone

They try to divide us
And largely they're succeeding
'Cause they've undermined our confidence
In the news that we are reading
And they make us fight each other
With our faces buried deep inside our phones
Rest in peace to the Information Age
Those days are now long dead and gone

I can see the weather changing
And I can feel the soul decaying
I'm observing drastic changes
In the way we're all behaving
I can see the sooth they're saying
Furthermore I could believe it to be true
Connection's more important now than it ever was
Buddy, what are you gonna do

This is the golden age of dick-otry
Probably the last golden age of anything
And the ugliest word in the English language is Anthropocene

Good luck, everybody Good luck

[Stormspellz]

But democrats would have you believe that rising debt is a non-issue. That was the rallying cry when Obama was spending like crazy.

For the record, both sides have never cared. I thought maybe with a non-politician in office this might change, but no.

simply wrong, no not just wrong, flat out lie

[Santti]

I thought maybe with a non-politician in office this might change, but no.

How would someone who has no idea how the government works be able to do that?

And not just a non-politician. A rich non-politician. He's not there to make the country prosper, that shit should have been obvious from the start. He's there to make himself more wealthy. The rather unpopular (lol) tax cut for the rich he enacted is him doing just that.

[nonameelf]

Hilarious that it's now secondary to economic growth when they're struggling to match the numbers from Obama's term.

[Howel]

So they're currently at around a trillion dollar deficit, with a tax cut (several really), they've gone on record to wanting even more tax cuts, the economy is pretty darn average overall (there are sectors that are doing fine, and others that aren't). Like when is that huge spike gonna come? Because last I checked, to even turn back to their old standard, we are talking a complete halt of any and all spending increases (which, fucking lol), and around a 4 % growth a year. And that's to return to what they inhereted from Obama, which is still around half a trillion!

Like can we just call it commiecapitalism at this point? Because these deficit increase are sure as shit not serving the average American anything of worth comparatively to the massive risk that is being taken; and they are the ones that lose their homes, lives and livelihood, if it doesn't work out (which it won't, it hasn't the last 5 times, and it won't this time).

[Edge-]

Like when is that huge spike gonna come?

Right after it arrives in Kansas.

Or...they already raised their taxes because their budgets had been gutted after, surprisingly, tax revenue declined following a broad tax cut. Nobody could have ever predicted that.

[Nellise]

Entitlements, not the military and other discretionary spending, are the largest drivers of deficit growth. The end.

You need to be more specific. Social Security doesn't touch the general fund and doesn't contribute to the deficit at all. Medicare and Medicaid cost about $1.1T but get about $290B in taxes to pay back a little of it, so a net cost of about $810B. Defense operations cost nearly $1T, nothing mitigates this (The $750B DoD cost doesn't include a bunch of other stuff that's also defense related). Other social programs cost about $650B (not entitlements).

Interest on the debt is nearly $500B and going to almost double in the next 10 years. Interest alone will almost cost as much as anything else. One reason why you don't blow up the deficit when you have a more or less healthy economy.

edit: to fix places I had millions instead of billions listed

[Xeones]

They're not going to grow the economy with what they are doing.

Suddenly the debt is going to be a massive concern as soon as democrats are in charge and they will forget that they are almost entirely responsible for it.

[Elegiac]

Man I sure am glad we are paying out the ass for very mediocre results.

It’s like expensive primer. Yikes.