In the article there is a table of US national debt year by year with the explanation.
The U.S. national debt is the total of what the federal government owes creditors. The U.S. has always carried debt, but the total has expanded rapidly since 2008.
www.investopedia.com
Interesting to look at.
Indeed, each tax cut is accompanied by increased national debt.
But so are wars. Ask how much “war on terror” and “Iraq invasion” cost US taxpayers. (I remember 2002. I was telling people, I saw USSR war on Afghanistan ending. You’ll be stuck there and leave the country to a tribal war. In return, I heard, no, we are bringing them democracy…)
Bush/Cheney’s fiscal policy was abysmal. The 2008-2009 crisis was the result of it.
Fluctuations in oil prices cause increase in national debt.
But then, Obama’s economic policy was bad. Perhaps bailing out banks was wrong. Iceland went the opposite way and it survived. I voted for Obama, so I am responsible.
Trump’s past time was marked by increase in national debt for two reasons: 1) tax break; 2) COVID. (COVID-19 was an objective thing, I suspect that the whole world suffered equally, can’t blame the politicians for not trying. We survived, after all.)
But if you look at Biden’s government spending, it drastically increased the national debt. Again, I voted for him.
So the question is “who did it?” and “where did the money go?”
This being said, I bet if we look at other countries, we’ll see similar patterns.
My conclusion: Solid knowledge of macro- and microeconomics should be a must for any political candidates. They have to take an exam instead of useless debates.