By Eddy Rodriguez
Newsweek Fellow
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The national debt has increased by $5.2 trillion since President Donald Trump took office.
According to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation, a non-partisan fiscal watchdog**,** the national debt rose from more than $19.9 trillion on January 20, 2017 to more than $25.2 trillion Wednesday.
The increase follows Trump's comments, highlighted in an interview the then-presidential candidate gave to the Washington Post, that he would eliminate the United States' national debt "over a period of eight years" in part by reducing or eliminating trade deals with various countries, including China.
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"I'm renegotiating all of our deals, the big trade deals that we're doing so badly on. With China, $505 billion this year in trade," Trump said at the time, adding that the trade deals he would negotiate with other countries would allow the U.S. to pay down its debt.
In the first three years of former President Barack Obama's administration, the debt grew $5 trillion dollars, going from about $10.6 trillion on January 21, 2009, the day after he was inaugurated to his first term in office, to about $15.6 trillion on May 14, 2012, according to the Peterson Foundation. According to data released by the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government has operated under a combined deficit of over $2 trillion for the 2017-2019 fiscal years.
The U.S. Treasury had to borrow an additional $3 trillion dollars this quarter alone to pay for congressional spending bills, according to a Fox News report, the majority of which went to provide relief to the millions of Americans affected by the novel coronavirus pandemic that has brought the economy to a halt.
As businesses across the country were forced to close under the guidance of health experts to help slow the spread of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, revenue has decreased and so can't offset the enormous amounts of spending necessary to provide Americans relief.
House Democrats unveiled another relief package Tuesday worth $3 trillion that would send a maximum of $6000 stimulus checks to qualifying Americans, $1 trillion to state and local governments, and $200 billion in hazard pay to essential workers during the crisis.
Republicans will now have a chance to mull the bill over and suggest changes, though Democrats have more than enough votes to pass the House. The bill's biggest challenge will be in the Senate where Republicans have a majority and can delay the bill. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told reporters Tuesday that the bill is filled with "aspirations" as opposed to "reality."
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