(CNSNews.com) - During the two periods that Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D.-Calif.) served as speaker of the House, the total debt of the federal government increased by $14.797 trillion, which equals 47.04 percent of the current total federal debt of $31.454 trillion.
Pelosi was first elected speaker on Jan. 4, 2007, according to the website of the U.S. House of Representatives. At the close of business that day, according to the U.S. Treasury, the total federal debt was $8,670,596,242,973.04.
Pelosi then relinquished the speakership to Rep. John Boehner (R.-Ohio) on Jan. 5, 2011. At the close of business that day, the total federal debt was $14,011,526,727,895.85.
Thus, in Pelosi’s first period as speaker, the total federal debt increased by $5,340,930,484,922.81.
Pelosi was elected speaker again on Jan. 3, 2019. At the close of business on that day, the total federal debt was $21,929,258,046,653.58.
Pelosi then relinquished the speakership to Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R.-Calif.) on Jan. 7, 2023, which was a Saturday, when the U.S. Treasury was closed. At the close of business on Friday, Jan. 6, 2023—Pelosi’s last business day as speaker—the total federal debt was $31,385,444,530,134.11.
Thus, in Pelosi’s second period as speaker, the total federal debt increased by $9,456,186,483,480.53.
The $5,340,930,484,922.81 that the debt increased in Pelosi’s first period as speaker, and the $9,456,186,483,480.53 that debt increased in her second period as speaker, equals a combined total of $14,797,116,968,403.34.
At the close of business on Feb. 6, 2023 (the latest date for which the numbers were available at the time of this story was published), the total federal debt was $31,454,316,628,624.35.
The $14,797,116,968,403.34 that the debt increased during the two periods that Pelosi served as speaker equals 47.04 percent of the total debt of $31,454,316,628,624.35.
In his State of the Union Address, President Joe Biden said: “Under the previous administration, the American deficit went up four years in a row. Because of those record deficits, no President added more to the national debt in any four years than my predecessor. 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. 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. When he left office on Jan. 20, 2021, the total federal debt was $27,751,896,236,414.77. Thus, during Trump’s administration, the federal debt increased by $7,804,591,681,202.28.
That equals 24.8% of the $31,454,316,628,624.35 in total debt the federal government held as of the close of business on Feb. 6, 2023.
During most of the first two years of Trump’s presidency, Rep. Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.) was speaker of the House. (Ryan was succeeded by Pelosi on Jan. 3, 2019, which was seventeen days before Trump’s second year in office ended).
During all of the second two years of Trump’s presidency, Pelosi was speaker of the House.
In Trump’s first two years, during most of which Ryan was speaker, the debt rose from $19,947,304,555,212.49 on Jan. 20, 2017 to $21,954,898,759,285.36 as of the close of business on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019—an increase of $2,007,594,204,072.87.
In Trump’s second two years, when Pelosi was speaker, the debt rose from $21,954,898,759,285.36 as of the close of business on Friday, Jan. 18, 2019 to $27,751,896,236,414.77 on Jan. 20, 2021—an increase of $5,796,997,477,129.41.
During Trump’s second two years, when Pelosi was speaker, the debt increased by $3,789,403,273,056.54 more than it did during his first two years, during most of which Ryan was speaker.
Trump’s final year in office also saw the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which first hit the United States in early 2020. In March and April 2020, 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 Coronovirus 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.
The fiscal 2023 budget proposal that President Biden submitted to Congress last year called for increasing the debt by more than $1.2 trillion dollars in each of the next ten years. As spelt out in Table S-10 of Biden’s budget proposal, his plan would have the debt increase $1.302 trillion in this fiscal year; $1.374 trillion in fiscal 2024; $1.402 trillion in fiscal 2025; $1.358 trillion in fiscal 2026; $1.235 trillion in fiscal 2027; $1.304 trillion in fiscal 2028; $1.317 trillion in fiscal 2029; $1.352 trillion in fiscal 2030; $1.423 trillion in fiscal 2031; and $1.440 trillion in fiscal 2032.