Brian Riedl: Donald Trump, Joe Biden, and $6 Trillion Budgets
How to slow massive and unchecked national deficits in an age of runaway spending and divided government.
In four years as president, Republican Donald Trump has overseen massive spending increases. His Democratic challenger, former Vice President Joe Biden, has laid out a spending plan that would add $11 trillion in new spending and institute the largest tax hike since the end of World War II.
Is this any way to run a country? Brian Riedl, a senior fellow at The Manhattan Institute who analyzes budget issues, walks Nick Gillespie through Trump's rotten fiscal record and Biden's insane wish list, explains how bipartisanship is just another word for more spending, and why even a divided government can't stop the red ink from flowing anymore. There are ways to cut spending and stabilize growth-killing national debt, says Riedl, but it's going to take a sea change in politics, rising interest rates, and a cold shoulder from the global economy to make them palatable.
