WH: Massive National Debt ‘Comes from Not Raising the Revenues That We Need’ Through Taxes

On Thursday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Katy Tur Reports,” White House Council of Economic Advisers member Jared Bernstein stated that we have a large national debt because there’s “a real reluctance to raise the revenues we need to meet our spending obligations.” And debt “comes from not raising the revenues that we need to meet our obligations.”

Host Katy Tur asked, “We had a balanced budget in the late ’90s. How are we now $31.4 trillion in debt?”

Bernstein responded, “Well, I think one of the things that’s hurt us is just a real reluctance to raise the revenues we need to meet our spending obligations. For years, Republicans in particular were just absolutely unwilling to entertain any revenue increases, especially at the high end of the scale, which is of course where President Biden has focused on raising the revenues we need to meet our spending obligations. In Bidenworld, we pay for our long-lasting programs and we do so by raising revenues at the very top of the scale, above 400,000. That means more tax fairness, it means more after-tax income equality, and it is a value of this President, it’s one of the reasons why we’ve achieved 1.7 trillion in deficit reduction since he’s been in office.”

He added, “The Trump tax cuts added almost 2 trillion to the deficit, Trump Republicans then went on to add another 2-plus trillion on the spending side, all while Republicans, including Kevin McCarthy, voted for three increases in the debt ceiling, all right? So, I think it’s a great question as to why now is different than then. As you’ve mentioned, the debt ceiling has been raised 78 times, I think 49 times with Republicans as president, the rest with Democrats, so that’s sort of a little hypocrisy there.”

Bernstein further stated, “[T]he tax story really needs to be discussed in the context of how you do you pay for your spending obligations. It’s the very first question you asked me today, where does all that debt come from? It comes from not raising the revenues that we need to meet our obligations.”

Later, Bernstein responded to a question on whether getting to a balanced budget can be done just through tax increases on top earners by stating, “I think there’s nothing particularly simple in this space. But we’ve managed to pay for many of our spending programs in precisely that way.”

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