(CNSNews.com) - During the two periods that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the House, the total federal debt increased by $14,762,858,559,299.17, which is 46.93 percent of the current total debt of $31,455,106,801,791.45.
President Joe Biden in his State of the Union Address on Tuesday drew attention to the significant increase in the debt that took place when President Donald Trump was in office.
“Nearly 25 percent of the entire national debt that took over 200 years to accumulate was added by just one administration alone—the last one,” said Biden. “They’re the facts. Check it out. Check it out.”
In fact, when Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017, the total federal debt was $19,947,304,555,212.49, according to the data published on the Treasury Department’s “Debt to the Penny” webpage.
When Trump left office four years later on Jan. 20, 2021, the total federal debt was $27,751,896,236,414.77.
Thus, during Trump’s administration the total federal debt increased by $7,804,591,681,202.28.
That is 24.81 percent of the total federal debt $31,455,106,801,791.45 that the government maintained as of Feb. 7, 2023, the day Biden delivered his State of the Union Address.
However, the debt increased far more during the Trump administration when Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) was speaker of the House than it did when then-Rep. Paul Ryan was speaker.
When Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2017, Ryan was speaker of the House. From that day until Jan. 3, 2019, when Pelosi became speaker, the total federal debt went from $19,947,304,555,212.49 to $21,929,258,046,653.58—an increase of $1,981,953,491,441.09.
From Jan. 3, 2019, when Pelosi took over as speaker, until Jan. 20, 2021, when Trump left office (and Pelosi was still speaker), the debt went from $21,929,258,046,653.58 to $27,751,896,236,414.77—an increase of $5,822,638,189,761.19.
Almost three quarters—74.61 percent—of the total $7,804,591,681,202.28 increase in the debt during the Trump administration occurred when Nancy Pelosi was speaker. Only 25.39 percent occurred when Ryan was speaker.
One cause for the escalation in federal spending—and the resultant debt—in the second half of the Trump administration was the COVID-19 pandemic, which first hit the United States in early 2020.
In March and April of that year, Congress enacted four laws in response to the pandemic that the Congressional Budget Office estimated would increase the deficit by a combined $2.404 trillion from fiscal 2020 to fiscal 2030.
These COVID-19 response laws included the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES), which CBO estimated would cost $1.721 trillion; the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act, which CBO estimated would cost $483 billion; the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which CBO estimated would cost $192 billion; and the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, which CBO estimated would cost $8 billion.
But the debt that accumulated during the Trump’s administration is significantly less than the debt that accumulated during the two periods when Pelosi served as speaker.
Pelosi was first elected speaker by the Democratic-majority House of Representatives that convened on Jan. 4, 2007. That day, according the Treasury Department’s Debt to the Penny page, the total federal debt was $8,670,596,242,973.04.
On Jan. 5, 2011, when Rep. John Boehner (R.-Ohio) was elected to succeed Pelosi as speaker, the total federal debt was $14,011,526,727,895.85. Thus, in Pelosi’s first four-year span as speaker, the total federal debt increased by $5,340,930,484,922.81.
Pelosi was elected to the speakership again on Jan. 3, 2019. On that day, the total federal debt was $21,929,258,046,653.58.
On Jan. 3, 2023, a Republican-majority House of Representatives convened. (It took until Jan. 7, to elect Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy of as it speaker.) As of Jan. 3, 2023, when the current Congress convened, the total federal debt was $31,351,186,121,029.94.”
Thus, in Pelosi’s second four-year span as speaker, the total federal debt increased by $9,421,928,074,376.36.
The $5,340,930,484,922.81 that the debt increased in Pelosi’s first period as speaker and the $9,421,928,074,376.36 that it increased during her second period as speaker equal a total of $14,762,858,559,299.17.
The total of $14,762,858,559,299.10 that the federal debt increased during Pelosi’s two periods as speaker of the House equals 46.93 percent of the federal government’s total debt of $31,455,106,801,791.45 as of Feb. 7.
As speaker of the House, Pelosi had considerable constitutional leverage over federal spending. Article 1, Section 9, Clause 7 of the Constitution states that: “No money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Appropriations made by Law.” No federal law can be enacted unless it is approved by the House of Representatives that the speaker leads.
Since Biden was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2021, a little more than two years ago, the federal debt has increased by $3,703,210,565,376.68—rising from $27,751,896,236,414.77 to $31,455,106,801,791.45.
This slightly-more-than-two-year increase in the debt under Biden equals 11.77 percent of the entire federal debt.
Table S-10 of Biden’s fiscal 2023 budget proposal indicates that, under Biden’s proposal, the federal debt would increase at an annual rate of more than a trillion dollars per year for the next ten years.