Crisis gives way to new politics on debt

Fewer Republicans prioritize minimizing national deficit

Over the past four years, President Donald Trump and his allies in Congress have all but obliterated the Republican Party’s self-professed commitment to less spending and smaller deficits, pushing policies that have bloated the federal budget deficit to record levels.

Even before the pandemic ravaged the economy, the deficit — the gap between what the United States spends and what it receives in taxes and other revenue — had ballooned, driven by a $1.5 trillion tax cut and more generous government spending. Then Congress adopted two stimulus packages totaling more than $3 trillion, which will be financed with borrowed money. U.S. debt has grown so much that in 2020 it was projected to surpass the size of the entire annual economy for the first time since World War II.

That spending — which some see as largesse, but many characterize as, in part, a needed response to a dire crisis — has upended the politics of what was once a bipartisan concern, leaving Washington’s fiscal hawks in an increasingly lonely corner in the economic debate.

“Since I arrived in Congress in 2011, federal debt has almost doubled,” Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., wrote in a recent opinion piece for USA Today, adding that the latest stimulus bill would push it over $29 trillion. “Unfortunately, few in Congress seem to care.”

The Republican embrace of deficit spending hit a wall with the party’s leadership this past week, as Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, rebuffed

Trump’s demand to quickly increase the size of stimulus checks to $2,000 from $600. That decision drew scorn from some in his own party, with Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri upbraiding Republicans for denying struggling workers additional relief.

“I hear a lot of talking about how we can’t afford it,” Hawley said on the Senate floor on Friday. “I do notice, however, that we seem to be able to afford all kinds of other stuff. We can afford to send lots of money to other governments. We can afford to send all kinds of tax breaks and bailouts to big corporations. But we can’t seem to find the money for relief for working people that the president and the House and the Senate all support.”

The split in the party offers a hint of the landscape that awaits President-elect Joe Biden, whose agenda will require Congress to agree to more spending. Biden is expected to push for another stimulus package once he takes office and has listed other priorities, including investments in infrastructure, health care and climate change, all of which require government money.

Come Jan. 20, Republican lawmakers are all but certain to cast themselves as the nation’s fiscal stewards and resurrect their deficit concerns to oppose policies backed by Democrats. For months, they have pointed to worries over government debt to argue against Democrats’ demands for a second trillion-dollar-plus stimulus package, ultimately aligning on a $900 billion bill.

They will be reviving those deficit concerns after a historic spending spree by a Republican president whose promises to help struggling farmers, manufacturers and workers have proved hugely popular with voters and reinforced a shift in thinking about the costs and benefits of federal deficits.