From a purely financial perspective, the first year of President Joseph Robinette Biden has been unique in our country's history. In the last half-century, no modern President has come even close to spending our Nation's wealth at the rate that Biden has.
I think that the best way to measure a President's spending is as a percentage of the country's total economy. And by this measure certainly both President's Reagan And Bush 1 were big spenders. Both Bush and Reagan twice spent 10% of the nation's income in a single year.
Now the record for a single year's spending goes to George W. Bush, who in a single year spent fully 20% of the nation's income that year. But to be fair to W, that year was paying for the War on Terror. And if taken together, W averaged spending only 3% of the nation's income in his years in office. Actually one of the lower rates in the last 50 years.
This brings us to President Biden, who has re-written the book on bid spenders. With a confluence of some of the most progressive elements of the Democratic Party in positions of power in both the House and Senate.
Biden has been able to pass massive spending package after massive spending package. And in his very first year in office to have spent nearly 19% of the nation's income in 2021. Something that usually takes a President years to work up to. Remember it was W's last year in office when he achieved that milestone.
For Biden, this will mean that going forward he will be in the dubious position to likely set new records in spending, likely in every year in office. This is because the tremendous debt that he has accumulated in 21, will have interest due for all his remaining years as President.
To give you an idea of just how monumental the debt mountain that Biden is building, the Congressional Budget Office, the nation's primary accountant, projects that if enacted the Build Back Better Plan would add a stunning $3 Trillion to the nation's debt. In other words, Biden would boost the nation's current debt by over 10%. And that's just from one single bill!
So, wouldn't it be great if we could get a discount on that debt? Somehow, reduce that total that we own. Currently, the US National Debt stands at just under $30 trillion dollars. And any reduction, no matter how small it might be, would be a welcome relief.
Well, what if I told you there is a way.
A way that governments have been using for centuries, to reduce their debt.
For Rome, it was the debasement of their currency, the denarius. What began as a standard coin of pure silver, gradually was reissued with progressively less and less silver.
This is a process that we began in this country back in 1964, when our coins also started to contain less and less silver, and progressively lesser metals, such as copper.
The point is this, each time that Rome reduced the silver in their coins, and used these new lesser coins in paying their debt, they received a discount.
That discount in the value of the currency, we call inflation.
While inflation means that you and I will need more dollars to buy bread or gasoline. It also means that the Government will need dollars of lesser value to pay their debt.
Our, after inflation, expenses rise.
While Washington's Debt, in real terms, decline.
And it has ever been thus.
Inflation is often called the hidden tax. Because for the average worker it means that our cost of living goes up. Just like a tax.
And while that's true. In the grand scheme of things, it has always been a way for Nations to pay their unsustainable debt.
Joe Biden is just taking it all to the next level.
