America needs to rein in its soaring national debt. But U.S. President Joe Biden seems eager to do just the opposite. The risks are too big to be ignored.
In the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, then-President Barack Obama ran the largest budget deficits of any president since World War II (adjusting for the automatic revenue and outlay effects of the business cycle). His successor, Donald Trump, surpassed him.
Biden plans to top them both. Though America’s gross federal debt now stands at 107% of GDP — a post-WWII record — the Biden administration’s 2022 budget has the country running by far the largest-ever peacetime deficits.