Three years into the Biden presidency, the federal government’s estimated annualized interest payments on the national debt now exceed $1 trillion.
For purposes of comparison, the Biden Administration requested just $773 billion for the Department of Defense for 2023.
That worrisome development isn’t bad luck or coincidence. It’s a direct consequence of Biden’s policy choices since entering office.
Specifically, Biden campaigned in 2020 on a soothing theme of restoring normalcy and moderation to the nation. In office, however, he immediately and unrelentingly governed from the extreme left, with reckless spending and hyperregulation. As a consequence, inflation reached unsustainable highs, which in turn necessitated higher interest rates, which in turn has punished consumers and brought the cost of paying interest on the national debt to over $1 trillion.
Facing increasingly grim reelection prospects, however, Biden and his advocates seek to convince exhausted American voters to stay the course with incremental improvements.
The problem with their “happy days are here again” persuasion tactics is that they ignore three years of accumulated damage already done.
Voters don’t start each day with a “Day Zero” clean slate. Rather, voters begin each day, each week, each month and the new year 2024 with a working memory of what has brought them to this point.
Voters remember 2019. They remember low inflation, which was just 1.4% when Biden entered the White House in January 2021. Consequently, they’re understandably impatient with Biden administration attempts to cast 3.4% inflation as some sort of “victory” simply because it happens to be down from 9.1% highs that it reached in the second year of his presidency even while he assured us that it was “transitory.”
Indeed, Biden apologists continue to label inflation “transitory,” which is an odd definition for something that has persisted for three long years now, punishing working-class Americans who must spend a higher percentage of their income on basics like food and shelter and gas than wealthier Americans who can more easily withstand that blow.
Biden nevertheless casts himself as the candidate who builds wealth “from the middle out and the bottom up?”
Voters similarly recall low gas prices, which were $2.39 per gallon in January 2021. They remember when Russia took a four-year break from invading neighboring countries.
Voters also remember when Lilliputian Houthi rebels weren’t attacking U.S. ships and forcing international shipping to reroute all the way around Africa’s southern tip to connect Europe and Asia. This week, Biden himself did his best Jimmy Carter impression by confessing that U.S. responsive attacks aren’t working. As American military adversaries go, we’re not talking about the German Wehrmacht or even Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi army here, yet Biden can’t manage to deter or swiftly defeat them.
That wasn’t happening four years ago.
Voters also remember when Iran wasn’t flush with cash after the Biden Administration relaxed sanctions imposed by the Trump Administration, which freed resources to fund Hamas and its murderous designs on Israel.
They remember when there wasn’t such global disorder, with some new crisis seeming to arise every single day. They remember when the Defense Secretary didn’t inexplicably disappear for days at a time unbeknownst to his boss the president himself. They remember when mothers weren’t occasionally confronting shortages of such simple staples as baby formula. They remember when America’s borders weren’t unchecked for literally millions of transgressors, countless numbers of whom might be terrorists or child traffickers or drug couriers.
Voters begin each day weary of the long litany of miseries that somehow began to cascade the day that Biden took office in January 2021. We don’t have short memories or suffer from collective amnesia.
That explains why the latest polling reveals that only 34% of Americans say they’re better off than they were four years ago, which was the damning question posed to voters in the 1980 election.
Biden and his campaign team may wish that life was like the film “Groundhog Day,” and conduct his reelection messaging accordingly. Americans, however, possess a better working understanding of where we are versus four years ago, and what brought us to where we find ourselves today.
Timothy H. Lee is Senior Vice President of legal and public affairs at the Center for Individual Freedom.
Reprinted with Permission from CFIF.org – Timothy H. Lee
I’ll put this in simple economic terms most Americans can better understand. When Biden took office, the rate of inflation was 1.4% and the average 10-year Treasury bond was yielding well under 0.5%. Our annual interest payments on the outstanding bonds sold to finance the spending of the federal government above and beyond what tax revenue brings in was approximately $600 billion a year. As those Treasury bonds mature, they are routinely refinanced by the issuance of new Treasury bonds pegged at the current rates of interest in order to attract sufficient buyers for our paper.
Fast forward to today. Inflation has increased over the last 3 1/2 years to what the federal government’s own tracking agencies say today is 3.7% (really its 4.1% when you strip out the usual exclusions the government doesn’t like to focus the public’s attention on). The 4.1% interest rate number is what new 10-year Treasury bonds actually sell for on the open market.
Now here is where it gets fun in a bad sort of way. Currently we have to pay a trillion dollars a year to service the debt we’ve already racked up, with the Biden administration intent on continuing the accelerated spending levels of Covid long after Covid is gone. Just look at the boondoggle of a budget being negotiated in the Democrat-controlled Senate right now, with several eager RINOs willing to sign onto it. As more and more of those low yielding 10-year Treasury bonds mature, new Treasuries will have to sold paying current market rates. In less than two years, our interest payments on serving that debt will be $1.5 to $1.7 trillion annually. That will make just serving the debt the largest single expenditure in the federal budget by far. By 2028, that number climbs to $2 trillion dollars annually. By 2030, it will be approaching $3 trillion annually. At that point, the plea from the professional political class is “we face a dire emergency” (of their own making by the way) and that the only solution is massive, across the board tax hikes and new taxes on anything not already taxed to the hilt. Those who really know history know where this is all leading. Yes, we will achieve true equality of outcomes for the masses. Just not in the way those hawking that BS have been selling it to a gullible public. Ignorance or stupidity of large sections of the American public does ultimately have a real cost for everyone.
There are two ways to conquer and enslave a country. One is by the sword. The other is by debt.
John Adams
This administration (Biden and the puppet master as well as the rest of the cabinet) should all be tried for treason. That’s all I have to say.
He continues an atrocious legacy. Look at Israel. Biden has continued the Obama bumbling and fumbling of Israel. Clinton was hardly better. Then there was Carter who openly supported the wrong side. No more democrats because they get it wrong every time.
They’re ignoring the damage already done over the past three years because THEY DID THE DAMAGE!
We havent seen the real destruction yet that Biden has created. Shooting will start for many reasons due to an inept government, a crooked FBI and DOJ. Problem is who will attack your homes and take away your rights firs? the Government or the illegal alien invasion and Cartels?
The far left progressive zealots all deserve to be tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail! Too bad it will never happen but it’s everything they deserve !
The demonrats can’t look in the mirror because they don’t care…More evidence that -Liberalism is a mental disorder.
You hit the nail on the head with your comments. This country is in shambles thanks to Biden. He’s got his head in his proverbial ass. It’s a scary time for me and so many others. We need Trump back for sure. Never worried when he was President.
This is THE DECAYING OF AMERICA! A deliberate effort to destroy us from within!
This article hits the ” nail” squarely. I hope voters vote accordingly and not vote democratically.
Excellent article of the real truth!!!
Then there’s inflation. The last time it was this out of control was with Crater. It’s always the democrats who mess up everything.
The democrats response to the disaster would be to put the squad also known as the Hamas caucus in charge.
A message to Biden apologists. You cannot defend the indefensible. I don’t need some left wing cheerleader telling me that things are better under Biden than under Trump when I know that they are not.
Yeah, but are the American voters smart enough to vote joe and his followers out of the WH?? I didn’t vote for joe in 2020 and I definitely will NOT vote for joe this year.
If our country elects a Democrat, we can expect our country to go where it will take years to recover.
3 american troops killed today by Iran proxies ? Maybe Obama did not give enough money to Iran. So we should give more ? BS
We need to give Iran ( in Tehran) a missle enima. Kill 10 of them for every 3 of ours they kill. Remove these cockroaches which is an insult to roaches.
WHEN is Dictator Beijing biden and the democrats going to apologize for 10 Food Processing Plants they DESTROYED in his first year and are still not repaired or replaced? WHEN are ALL Food Products and other products going back to FULL SIZE instead of only getting HALF the product with same packaging Falsely claiming FULL SIZE product and PAYING MORE THAN 3 TIMES THE COST thanks to Dictator Beijing biden’s INFLATION that STILL CONTINUES GOING UP?
Or apologize for Devaluing the Dollar?
Remember, we DID’NT have this problem under President Trump’s Administration. Also the Dollar was a Dollar under President Trump.
With Dictator Beijing biden and the democrats the Dollar is only worth 23 cents today cause of their INFLATION INCREASE ACT of 2021 they RAMMED down our throats.
3 years later now on 4 years look where we are at.
Let’s not forget about ALL of OUR FOOD going to Dictator Beijing biden’s ILLEGAL ALIEN TERRORIST INVASION feeding TERRORIST with OUR FOOD with OUR TAX DOLLARS PAYING FOR IT (ILLEGALLY).
Worse, the watchdogs of the people, the press, have turned into champions of tyranny, oppression, subjugation, genocide and propaganda.
It appears that the very people that we should be able to count on to help us to keep ourselves free have joined the despots!
A damage done? There is no word that could describe the colossal catastrophe that happened with Biden in the WH It makes Titanic look like a little dinghy with a little leak
I know a lot of people out there hate Trump and his tweets and other stupid stuff he did, however ask yourself are you better off now or were you better off when Trump was President??? Did the rest of the world respect us better when Trump was President or Biden/Obama???
Overwhelmingly for all the stuff you disliked about Trump, you know in your heart that you personally were much better off when Trump or we had a Republican administration.
Somehow, somehow we the people of the United States must get rid of the demoncrats out of our government before they finish destroying our Country and Constitution, we cannot tolerate their lying to us anymore!!!!!!!
What I don’t understand that there are still 34% of the people that say ole Joe does a good job. The man hasn’t done a worthwhile thing in the past 3 years or during his whole live as a politician. Except get rich himself and the crowning glory at the end of his life, he destroyed America. If anyone takes his mea culpas as a sign he is going to do better, forget it. We are not only angry for what he has done to us and our country. We are in a rage. Not to get revenge on him and his cronies, but to save this nation and restore our country to the vision of Washington, Jefferson and so many of our brave founders of this country and its constitution. That is what Trump and his supporters are fighting for. For every citizen.
Something to be aware of is that the so-called ruling class planned to do what they have done and to create the outcomes we have seen and, in many cases, have had to deal with. I too want to see the end of Biden as a political actor. If Pres. Trump wins in November and is done with lawfare, then some or many of the demos actions can be undone. But if it takes new legislation, then we better hope that the Rep party wins in Congressional elections. If Reps win the Senate, then McConnell has to be ousted as Majority leader.
Unfortunately, a second Trump term would only be a brief respite from the onslaught of progressive destruction of our country. Look how easily Biden undid Trump’s most affective economic and regulatory policies. Anyway, we can all hope.
Anyone actually believing the DNC will lose the Executive Office is delusional. They could run a cat turd and win as they will do any and everything to win. Last time? Manufactured “pandemic” with the lockdowns and the forced vaccinations with a vaccine that doesn’t work and was known not to work prior to its provision and that doesnt mention the harm that poison did and continues to do and will continue to do.
They will do anything including political assassination and some on the left have openly called for just that with NO reprucussions.
So……..goodbye USA, it was nice knowing ya
all leftists/democrats are responsible for the disaster that is america today. they are need to be put on trial for treason and then hung.
2 presidents will be running in November. Ignore what either say… just vote based for their record of accomplishment (or lack there of) and don’t be a TRIBALIST! This is not difficult stuff here folks!!
Very well said!
In everything done to date, the Republicans have been complicent, especially in the Senate, no names mentioned. American voters need to look at who is representing them. The parties are essentially the same. Republicans are deafeningly silent on executive orders, unconstitutional legal events, unconstitutional voting changes, etc.
those of us with a brain and common sense know that biden lies and is a hypocrite – can’t believe people believe this moron. that’s why they have a jackass for a symbol and are the dumpster party
They don’t recognize the damage already done because they don’t see it as damage, it’s their agenda, but millions of Americans do and some of them are Democrat voters. I hope they will take off their rose colored glasses while looking at the Democrat run federal government and whether they are better off than they were four years ago!! Joe isn’t so smooth talking any more and the other options aren’t too promising for our country!!!
Because he wasn’t a Washington insider and went against the elites and started to do what We the People wanted: Fire at least some of the entrenched bureaucrats, decrease taxes and the number of business killing regulations, get tough with NATO and our foreign adversaries like China and Russia, took away Iran’s finances and business income, The Abraham Accords!, defund the Palestine Authority for paying for terrorists killing our ally Israelis, sealed the southern border the best he could despite Democrat opposition, kept inflation and gas prices down, and much more than I can write here. The fact you don’t know this proves you’re an un-American, communist and terrorist and child grooming loving liberal moron who loves the anti-Trump vitriol more than the TRUTH!
I’m certain Former President Trump would turn this around again.
That’s depending on when and if he wins re-election.
He has my vote to be #47!
Trump 2024!
obama needs to be sent to the D.C. Gulag for the rest of his life!
Been doing damage since in office or VP & Senate years alone
Biden’s basic platform was to “transform America.” That sounds much like Obama’s mantra but Biden took the publicly appreciated meaning 180 degrees to the left to the point where transform became destroy. He has succeeded to a level unimaginable and I assure you that unless we repopulate Congress with people who know how to conduct business and elect a Presiden/Commander who has the backbone and character to take us back to December 2019, we will founder and die as the Republic so costly and generously given us.
Juat as in the last election, the voters won’t matter.
Biden’s thinkers with devious anti-American minds, have actually been making the erroneous decisions, which has brought our country to the brink of disaster. Many know this! Wake up America! it is not about party…it’s about saving our country.
I still don’t believe jackass Joe really won the election. If you watched tv on election night, most people noticed how after a commercial that Trump had LESS votes than before the commercial. If that isn’t fraud, I don’t know what is. Was an illegal election, and now we have an idiot in the white house who doesn’t even know how to get off a stage without the help of his wife, has dementia and trips over his own feet.
Biden, and his party are a national disaster, and Americans need to do everything in their constitutional power to prevent that something like Biden, and the Democrat party can ever befall our nation again. The Democrat party that began with a racist land grab from the Cherokee Indians, then sponsored the slavery of black Americans, and the civil war, founded the KKK, then switched gears embracing socialism/Marxism, heavy taxation, and now favors BLM/ANTIFA, and DEI, and CRT, and the fascist WEF corporate/governmental “partnership” approach, along with its bow to hereditary neo-feudalism (the reason why King Charles, and the Dutch Crown love Klaus Schwab) has, is, and always will be spreading racism, and division in a country whose very name is the UNITED States of America. While our country’s motto is “E Pluribus Unum” out of many one, their motto is “Divide and Conquer!” The U.S.A. and Freedom and the Democrat party with their divide and control attitude do not go along. It might be time to consider banning a party that is not interested in cooperation for the good of American citizens and upholding and defending the U.S. Constitution, and our borders, but only the fundamental transformation of the American Constitutional Republic into a globalist dictatorship under a hybrid Chinese communist/fascist/neo-feudalist world government without private property or rights to representation for its subjects, who will no longer be citizens.
joe’s fans tell us that ain’t sh*t, it’s sugar.
Voters don’t remember anything beyond their last pay check! Their parents and grandparents voted D so they will vote D. The person running for office is meaningless if it’s a D – vote D! If the news networks report it, it’s true, remember they promised true, balanced reporting. Voters don’t care unless it effects them directly.
In 1975 the entire Federal budget was only a bit over $320 billion–everything. Now the interest on the debt is 3 times what the whole budget was 50 years ago. bad govt, by any measuring stick.
I bought a large pizza and 36 chicken wings from Pizza Hut tonight… $93. Pretty soon the Democrat dream of us all eating INSECTS will come true! But by then I’m betting evennbugs on a pizza will be “too expensive” thanks to Bidenomics.
all the corrupt mainstream media are hiding the democridens evil agenda
If and that’s a BIG if we could have fair elections Biden/Obama and his filthy lying cabinet would be voted out in a heartbeat, but you forget that the demoncrats have a lying cheating voting machine that changes votes, produces 100,000 of thousands of fake votes and machines that change Trump votes to Biden votes!!! SO HOW IS THIS TIME ANY DIFFERENT BECAUSE THE LACK-LESS DON’T GIVE A CARE Republicans THINK THE SYSTEM WILL FIX ITSELF.
But it won’t change and come November will probably have the same Marxist, socialist system we have now except it will be much much worse and they will have all the power, take our guns away and the elitists will rule over us and nothing we can do about it and we becomes SLAVES to the government.
Bright future yeah.
Agree with how bad things are but I wish I possessed the optimism that is expressed in the concluding paragraph, “Americans possess a better working understanding.of where we are…” In listening to others, seeing an astonishing number of socialists indicated by some polls, and main stream media’s perceptions, I’m not sure even a majority have a sense of our state of affairs, or worse yet, think Biden and his seemingly inept staff are doing a great job. Even worse, some don’t realize or don’t want to realize what a disaster 4 more years down this path would be. It’s hard to believe that people keep voting the way they do. Hope I am wrong!
It is typical of deceitful Progressives to make claims based on irrelevant time lines. Just because things are four times better this year than last does not make up for them still being 10 times worse than when Biden took office.
The economy is much worse now than it was three years ago. American citizens are being forced to pay for foreign wars that didn’t exist three years ago. American citizens are being forced to pay for personal loans taken out by irresponsible students who refuse to repay those loans. American citizens are being forced to pay for global environMENTAL issues that never change anything and American citizens are being forced to pay for the health and welfare of millions of illegal aliens who should never have been allowed into the U.S.
We are witnessing Obama’s “fundamental transformation of the USA”. You are getting what you voted for —- your own death warrant.
This article is exactly right. The companion fact is the electorate did better when voting was in person with identification. My town still has voter registration manned books to record each vote ONCE (then the blank is filled). People who come in person do not have someone else “helping” them decide each mark. Those people are more aware/capable than those who need help. It is those of us who are still walking/driving (and working and paying taxes). The progressives running the show are shamelessly appointing themselves Pied Pipers leading the country over the cliff.