Staff Reports
The latest report from the Treasury Department reveals a staggering $711 billion deficit for the last quarter of 2024, a fitting sendoff for President Biden as he prepares to hand over a financial mess to incoming President Donald Trump. While the taxman made a slight dip in revenue, the real culprit behind this fiscal fiasco is the runaway spending that has become a hallmark of Biden’s administration.
With an aging population demanding benefits from Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, the writing was already on the wall. However, Biden decided to double down on deficit spending. It seems this administration is in a race against time to shove as much taxpayer money down the spending sluice as possible before the arrows fly in Trump’s direction. Just when one thought perverse incentives couldn’t get any worse, Biden’s late-term spending spree makes it crystal clear that the man has no intention of leaving a clean ledger behind.
Take a glance at these numbers: the Environmental Protection Agency made it a mission to ramp up spending with an eye-popping $21 billion increase in expenditures over the same months last year. It’s almost as if they were trying to burn through cash faster than a caffeinated squirrel on a caffeine high. All this extra spending was purportedly for energy efficiency grants, one of those feel-good programs that nobody assesses for actual effectiveness. Meanwhile, emergency spending for hurricanes Helene and Milton only served to deepen the fiscal chasm, just another excuse to splurge without restraint.
In total, the government pulled in $1.083 trillion and spent a jaw-dropping $1.794 trillion over the last three months. In contrast, the previous year’s figures looked pretty tame in comparison, with the deficit a mere $510 billion—$201 billion smaller than the current disaster. The elderly population’s penchant for claiming benefits contributed an additional $54 billion to the spending spree. It raises the question: who needs fiscal responsibility when riding the spend train can provide a thrill?
Biden leaves Trump with deteriorating deficithttps://t.co/t9TBcc3h7m pic.twitter.com/YYwwNxINwt
— The Washington Times (@WashTimes) January 14, 2025
Interest payments on the mountainous public debt have also matched the Democrats’ enthusiasm for high spending, costing $245 billion in just three months—a $24 billion jump from last year. Under Biden, the federal debt has skyrocketed to $36.2 trillion, adding $8.4 trillion since he took office. For context, that outpaces Barack Obama’s record, which saw Obama rack up $8.6 trillion during his two terms. Let’s hope Trump’s team can find the brakes, or else it will be a trillion-dollar deficit running wild every year for the foreseeable future.
As if all this wasn’t enough, Trump has proposed a series of tax cuts, though critics say it could worsen the deficit. Yet, with seasoned visionaries like Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy on board to lead the Department of Government Efficiency, there’s a chance we could see real budget trimming efforts emerge. Musk has even hinted at cutting a trillion dollars in spending annually, which would be a monumental feat. In the meantime, taxpayers are left holding the bag, watching the government spend money like it was confetti at a parade while hoping Trump can rein in the chaos.
