Trump wartime funding strategies are bad news for U.S.’s mounting national debt.
For WW1, President Woodrow Wilson espoused a “conscription of wealth,” telling Americans that just as the U.S. drafted young men to fight the war, it would also draft the wealth of America.
In the throes of the Korean War, President Harry Truman gave more than 200 speeches advocating for his “pay-as-you-go policy” of using tax revenue to pay for military expenditures over debt.
President George W. Bush launched attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, becoming the first time a U.S. war was funded solely through borrowing rather than taxes or budget increases. Borrow from who? Estimated cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan that topped $2 trillion then has now been revised to $5 trillion.
Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget request called for $1.5 trillion in defense spending, a 44% increase from the year before. The proposed budget would mark the first time defense spending exceeds all other discretionary spend. About a quarter of the U.S. budget comes from borrowed money.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with borrowing money but it should not be for war at the expense of investments in economic growth. When you borrow for things that are productive investments, like infrastructure or education, you hope to get back more than what you borrow. In Trump's case, we’re borrowing at high rates, largely for things that will end up in the sand.
In the throes of the Korean War, President Harry Truman gave more than 200 speeches advocating for his “pay-as-you-go policy” of using tax revenue to pay for military expenditures over debt.
President George W. Bush launched attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan, becoming the first time a U.S. war was funded solely through borrowing rather than taxes or budget increases. Borrow from who? Estimated cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan that topped $2 trillion then has now been revised to $5 trillion.
Trump’s fiscal 2027 budget request called for $1.5 trillion in defense spending, a 44% increase from the year before. The proposed budget would mark the first time defense spending exceeds all other discretionary spend. About a quarter of the U.S. budget comes from borrowed money.
There’s nothing inherently wrong with borrowing money but it should not be for war at the expense of investments in economic growth. When you borrow for things that are productive investments, like infrastructure or education, you hope to get back more than what you borrow. In Trump's case, we’re borrowing at high rates, largely for things that will end up in the sand.
