January 29, 2020: GDP Growth in 2019 Was 2.3 Percent - Federal Deficit Grows 50 Percent

 

1/29/20: The final numbers are in and the White House decides to brag: Gross Domestic Production (GDP) for 2019 increased by 2.3 percent. This was down from 2.9 percent growth in 2018; but still somehow reason to boast. Deficit spending, of course, has been a boost, with $1 trillion more spent during Fiscal Year 2019 than the federal government took in. 

Meanwhile, Secretary of Alchemy Steven Mnuchin promises that he and Trump have been right all along. Yes, Mnuchin promised Trump’s tax cuts would pay for themselves. No, they haven’t. Yes, the deficit has risen by 50%. Don’t worry. The tax cuts will pay for themselves! Soon. Like in…two more years. If we wait two more years and reelect Trump the magic will begin. 

If deficits continue to pile up, as the Congressional Budget Office predicts, the U.S. will eventually end up in a debt crisis, like Greece.

 

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THE U.S. POPULATION continues to gray. Barring a pandemic, as the trend continues, the strain on Medicare and Medicaid will begin to buckle the system. With the focus on the Iowa caucuses and the coming presidential election, The New York Times notes that Iowa is one of 27 states where the population over age 60 is growing and the population under 60 is shrinking. 

The number of Americans 65 years old and older is expected to nearly double, from 52 million in 2018 to 95 million by 2060. (This blogger expects to be dead by then. So, he doesn’t care; but his grandchildren will.) 

At that point, nearly 1 in 4 Americans, 23%, will be seniors. That means, if we keep piling up debt now, the next generations will be left with nothing more than giant piles of IOU’s signed, most recently, by Donald J. Trump and his Tea Party-Oh-Never-Mind Republican pals.