Haley began the first Republican primary debate on Wednesday by stating that "Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt."
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| Nikki Haley |
Former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley said on Wednesday that Republicans ought to take a closer look at themselves when it comes to out-of-control government spending, unmanageable levels of borrowing, and the inflation that those first two things contributed to unleash.
"The truth is that Biden didn't do this to us, our Republicans did this to us too," Haley said during the early moments of Wednesday's Republican primary debate. She pointed specifically to Republican support in Congress for COVID stimulus bills and other recent spending packages. "They need to stop the spending, they need to stop the borrowing, they need to eliminate the earmarks that Republicans brought back in," she said.
"And Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this," Haley continued, delivering the knockout punch.
She got it right.
When he ran for office in 2016, Trump pledged to pay off the national debt within eight years. The national debt was just over $20 trillion when he arrived at the White House. He, um, didn't settle it. Instead, during Trump's first three years in office, government spending increased, from $3.98 trillion in fiscal year 2017 to $4.45 trillion in fiscal year 2019, before going through the roof in 2020 as a result of emergency COVID-19 expenditure. (There is a lot of blame to go around since Republicans also held total control of Congress for the first two years of Trump's presidency.)
The national debt was getting close to $28 trillion when he left. Its current value is $32.7 trillion.
During President Joe Biden's term in office, Republicans have unsurprisingly returned to a mantra of budgetary restraint, seemingly forgetting that the fiscal years of 2017 and 2018 ever occurred.
It was a pleasant moment when Haley brought attention to the recent, bipartisan role of borrowing and spending. It was also a strong moment for Haley, who stood out throughout Wednesday's somewhat disorganised discussion. And it's crucial that whoever is elected president in the coming year understands how severe the federal government's debt crisis is.
Source: Fox News