Bipartisan effort needed to raise debt ceiling
Sen. Dick Durbin told CNN State of the Union anchor Dana Bash on Sunday that President Biden should “absolutely not” negotiate with Republicans over debt increases.
“Those who pose for holy pictures as budget balances, MAGA Republicans, should note an important fact,” he said. “Nearly 25% of all the national debt accumulated over the history of the United States, 230 years, was accumulated during the four years of Donald Trump.”
Although technically true, the majority of the increase in US debt has occurred over the past two decades under Republican and Democratic administrations. US debt stood at around $5.8 trillion in 2001, by the time Obama came to power it had doubled, giving GW Bush an 18.4% share. Eight years later, it nearly doubled again to just under $20 trillion, giving Obama nearly 29.7%.
Under Trump, it jumped another $7.8 trillion, 24.8%, thanks to Republican tax cuts and bipartisan measures to mitigate the fallout from the covid-19 pandemic. So far in Biden’s two years in office, the national debt has grown by more than $3.6 trillion, or an 11.7% share of the total amount in US history. United.