The 2024 presidential race is over, and Donald Trump is back in the White House. The Dow and S&P are celebrating, suggesting investors are optimistic about Trump’s effect on Wall Street.
But, for all the fanfare, we still face an ominous challenge: The nation’s unsustainable debt and deficit. Regardless of who won, with the path we are on, we are all in trouble, unless something changes.
America’s debt recently exceeded $35.88 trillion, a sum so large it’s almost incomprehensible. That is a stack of hundred dollar bills about the same size as the Earth’s circumference — over 24 thousand miles tall. The federal deficit alone for 2024 topped $1.83 trillion.
Year after year, we’ve operated on what feels like a limitless credit card, passing the bill onto future generations, spending like drunken sailors with limitless credit lines leaving future generations to wake up to the hangover of our reckless binge.
Oddly enough, back in 1999, it was Donald Trump who talked about solving this very problem. In his book “The America We Deserve,” Trump offered ideas for putting the U.S. on a more sustainable path.
Granted, his proposals weren’t great (they were actually kind of bad, in my opinion). But Trump’s message then was a rare acknowledgment from a public figure that our fiscal policy was reckless and needed reform. And, to be clear, that was back when the national debt was under $6 billion and we were headed into a couple of years of deficit surpluses.
Now, he has a unique opportunity to confront the debt crisis head-on. Trump’s second term frees him from the usual political pressures: He doesn’t personally have to worry about re-election, pleasing donors, or maneuvering through the usual political calculus. He can make the hard choices that others might shy away from.
He can do what he claims he excels at — taking actions that those raised in the swamp refuse to. If he steps up, he could genuinely save America from what may be one of its most severe long-term threats.
This will require sacrifices. He can help push Congress toward making changes that will put the nation on more secure fiscal footing. This will require changing the tax code, cutting spending in ways that will be painful, reforming entitlement programs, etc. — everything should be on the table. Many of these changes will be unpopular.
In today’s polarized political environment, these actions are so divisive they’re rarely even discussed by politicians. But this is precisely why Trump might be able to pull this off — he has never shied away from controversy or backlash. If ever we needed someone who is divisive and willing to break golden calves, it’s now. Trump might be exactly the kind of person willing the slaughter the cows sacred to both sides and bring us on a more sustainable path.
Trump’s electoral victory will be much less meaningful if he leaves office in four years without addressing our debt and deficit problems. Without bold action now, we’re on a path toward economic instability. Trump has the opportunity — and responsibility — to help us pivot away from this cliff. Here’s hoping he’s willing to take the leap.
Jeff Hoopes is a professor and the Thomas Willis Lambeth Distinguished Chair in Public Policy at the University of North Carolina and the research director of the UNC Tax Center. He is a certified public accountant in the State of Colorado.
