President Trump oversaw falling Federal deficits, which is not surprising since he inherited the Great Recession. President Trump is generating unprecedented $1 trillion deficits in a growing economy.
www.forbes.com
President Trump on the other hand was handed an economy that was growing. In 2017, his first year in office the deficit grew to $666 billion, was $984 billion last year and is projected to be over $1 trillion in 2020 at $1.02 trillion. This would be a 74% increase in just four years and going forward the Federal deficit could escalate to $1.7 trillion in 2030.
When you compare the last three years of Obama’s Presidency vs. Trump’s first three years, Trump’s deficits will be almost $1 trillion greater at $2.47 trillion to $1.51 trillion for Obama. It doesn’t look like Trump’s tax cuts will pay for themselves.
Unprecedented deficits when the economy is growing
The Federal deficit is forecast to be 4.6% of GDP in fiscal 2020 while the economy’s real growth rate is a projected to be 2.2%. This growth rate is
in-line with the economy growing at essentially 2.1% the last three quarters.
As shown in the two graphs below, since 1970 the only times, until now, that the deficit has been above 4% of GDP is when there has been a recession.