As President Joe Biden gears up for his reelection campaign, competitors will look for gaps in the incumbent’s armor, soft spots that can be framed as vulnerabilities, reasons to elect someone else.
The most obvious soft spot, or reason to elect someone else, in Joe Biden’s profile is his age. He’s about to turn 81-years-old, man. Far too old to be leading the federal government of human history’s most powerful and consequential nation.
Another soft spot could perhaps be the national deficit.
Joe Biden and the national debt
In the eight years that Biden was serving as vice president under Barack Obama, the administration added about $9.8 trillion in national debt. That’s a lot. Trump was worse, given that he added $7.8 trillion over a four year period, but still, the Obama administration did some damage. The trend has continued under the Biden administration.
“The debt has increased about $3.7 trillion during Biden’s time as president, rising to about $31.5 trillion,” CNN reported.
Naturally, Biden will try to deflect criticisms over the debt increase since he took office.
He will no doubt argue that the deficit fell between fiscal year 2020 and fiscal year 2022 (from $3.1 trillion to about $1.4 trillion) But as CNN has noted: “it is highly questionable how much credit Biden deserves for the decline – which overwhelmingly occurred because the emergency pandemic spending from the end of the Trump era expired as planned. In fact, independent analysts says Biden’s own new laws and executive actions have significantly added to current and projected future deficits, not reduced those deficits.”
National debt and the upcoming election
The Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of respondents believed the budget deficit was a top priority for the government, suggesting that the national debt will be relevant to the 2024 election.
Normally, that would be bad news for Joe Biden, whose debt numbers are likely to worry the majority of Americans who are concerned with the national debt.
But if Biden is running against Donald Trump – which seems like the most likely 2024 general election scenario – Biden will have the best national debt record in the race, making him the lesser of two evils.
Trump ran back in 2016 on a promise of eliminating the national debt in eight years. But once inaugurated, Trump proceeded to slash taxes for the wealthy and rack up more debt in a four year period than any president ever. Then came the pandemic, which forced the Trump administration to spend money to avert economic collapse.
“Between fiscal years 2019 and 2020, the national debt increased by over $4 trillion,” The Hofstra Chronicle reported. “The increase can likely be attributed to the bills passed by the Trump administration to combat the COVID-19 pandemic, such as the CARES Act.”
So, either candidate in a Biden-Trump rematch may be vulnerable to critiques on national spending.
“Republicans only want to talk about spending on specific programs,” said Hofstra University professor Paul Fritz. “Democrats only want to talk about the lack of income through taxes that contribute to the debt. Both sides have a point, but both sides need to think about the other, too.”
Author Expertise
Harrison Kass is the Senior Editor and opinion writer at 19FortyFive. An attorney, pilot, guitarist, and minor pro hockey player, Harrison joined the US Air Force as a Pilot Trainee but was medically discharged. Harrison holds a BA from Lake Forest College, a JD from the University of Oregon, and an MA from New York University. Harrison listens to Dokken.
From 19FortyFive
‘You Really Oughta Go Home’: F-22 Raptor Stealth Fighter Flew Under F-4 From Iran
