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Washington Post thrashes Biden, Trump for 'reckless deficits' putting country in financial peril
By Nikolas Lanum
Published April 16, 2025
The Washington Post editorial board on Tuesday claimed that the United States is ill-equipped to navigate a possible recession, blaming former President Joe Biden and President Donald Trump for a history of "reckless deficits."
In the opinion piece, "The U.S. is in no shape to weather a recession," the editorial board said that an "economic contraction" looks increasingly likely as a result of Trump's "tariff shock" and "feckless policy decisions" that have shadowed the past decade.
The board noted that by the time former President Barack Obama left office, the national debt had already comprised approximately 75% of the U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) and expanded to nearly 100% in 2020.
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The Washington Post's building in DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"Thanks to this political irresponsibility," the board said, the U.S. debt-to-GDP ratio has declined only slightly since the COVID-19 pandemic—with this small recovery occurring because economic growth and inflation boosted the "nominal" GDP value.
It added the Biden administration had made things worse.
"Like the World War II debt, most of this was incurred because the government was responding to an extraordinary emergency and borrowing as needed to fund many stimulus measures," the Post wrote. "After the emergency ended, though, policymakers made no effort to pare the debt load. The Biden administration and its congressional enablers chose instead to worsen the situation, running bigger and bigger deficits even as the economy recovered: 5.3 percent in 2022, 6.1 percent in 2023, 6.3 percent in 2024."
The debt has continued to grow, from $21.7 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2020 to $28.9 trillion in early 2025.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, the debt-to-GDP ratio will rocket by another 20% over the next 10 years.
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U.S. President Donald Trump speaks during a "Make America Wealthy Again" trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
"This is before accounting for the budget-busting tax cuts that Congress is considering, which would add even more trillions to the staggering debt load," the Post editorial board wrote.
"This means that if Trump's punishing tariff policy leads to a recession, as it might, the government might not be able to finance economic relief with cheap debt. Like many a chronic over-spender, the United States has depleted its emergency reserves to pay for things politicians wanted, rather than things the country needed. When the bill comes due, it is apt to prove costly indeed," the board continued.
On April 9, Trump announced a partial pause in his "reciprocal" tariffs, which were lowered for most trading partners to 10% for 90 days, as well as his increase in tariffs on Chinese goods to 145%.
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WASHINGTON, DC - APRIL 10: U.S. President Donald Trump holds a Cabinet meeting at the White House on April 10, 2025 in Washington, DC. President Trump convened a Cabinet meeting a day after announcing a 90-day pause on ‘reciprocal’ tariffs with the except (Photo by Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images)
His tariffs on vehicles, auto parts and steel and aluminum remain in effect.
Those tariffs have contributed to several leading economic forecasters hiking the probability of the U.S. economy entering a recession this year.
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Fox News' Eric Revell contributed to this report.
https://www.foxnews.com/media/washington-post-thrashes-biden-trump-reckless-deficits-country-financial-peril