Much of deficit under Trump was related to COVID relief

A letter to the editor stated that President “Trump ran up over $8 trillion to the federal deficit in four years.” That is in the ballpark; both Nikki Haley and Ron Desantis used similar numbers in their campaigns to defeat President Trump. But, there is more to this story as Paul Harvey used to say. How much did President Trump add to the debt?

• CARES Act, $1.9 trillion.

• Response & Relief Act, $0.985 trillion.

• Other COVID relief, $0.755 trillion.

• Total for COVID relief laws and executive orders, $3.6 trillion.

• Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, $1.9 trillion.

• Bipartisan Budget Act of 2018, $0.420 trillion.

• Bipartisan Budget Act of 2019, $1.7 trillion.

• Further Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2020, $0.500 trillion.

• Other legislative actions, $0.350 trillion.

• Total for tax and spending laws, $4.8 trillion.

• Tariffs — primarily Trump’s program, (minus) -$0.445 trillion.

• Affordable Care Act Cost-sharing Reductions Termination, $0.250 trillion.

• Prescription Drug Rebate Rule, $0.205 trillion.

• Executive actions (primarily Trump’s), $0.10 trillion.

• Grand total of items making up debt increase during Trump, $8.5 trillion.

• Total excluding the once-in-a-century pandemic COVID relief, $4.8 trillion.

Sources: Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Congressional Budget Office, Joint Committee on Taxation, and Office of Management and Budget.

The pandemic spending was not some governmental largesse but a response to a fatal, airborne threat to all citizens. The response to the pandemic was amazing, but it had a price. Businesses were forced to close, and a severe financial burden fell on all the citizens to which their government responded in multiple ways. Trump did have help from legislators Pelosi and Shumer and fellow legislators spending the money, you will recall. They all did what they thought was right.