President Joe Biden ’s spending and deficits are not just bad but worse than they appear.

Fiscal 2023 was another bad one, with the deficit increasing by $300 billion to $1.7 trillion. Biden has never had a budget deficit under $1 trillion. In three years, he has run a cumulative $5.9 trillion in deficits, and according to Congressional Budget Office estimates, if he remains president for another term, he still will not run a deficit of less than $1 trillion and will fall just short of $2 trillion in 2028. All this red ink is the result of his continued insistence on spending at crisis levels.

CBO recounts Biden’s latest depressing deficit chapter: “In 2023, the deficit was equal to 6.3% of the nation’s gross domestic product. That deficit is greater than the 50-year average of 3.7% and has been exceeded only six times since 1946.”

Bleak as this is, it would have been bleaker if Biden had his way. Remember that he wanted an even bigger spending package in 2022 but was denied by his party. He also sought a massive student debt holiday that only the Supreme Court prevented. Eliminating the impact of Biden’s student loan bailout (and favorable technical timing changes), CBO stated that “without the effects of debt cancellation (and excluding the effects of timing shifts), the deficit would have grown nearly $1.1 trillion from 2022 to 2023.” That would have meant another $800 billion in red ink.

The culprit for this calamity is not hard to identify: Biden. The means is no less difficult to discern: Biden continues to spend with no regard for the economy or our skyrocketing national debt. Biden has refused to let spending return to pre-pandemic levels.

In 2019, the federal government spent $4.4 trillion and ran a $984 billion deficit. This was hardly a stellar performance — until it is compared with Biden’s. Since taking office in 2021 (and through fiscal 2023), Biden’s spending has topped 2019’s by $6.3 trillion, more than $2 trillion per year. As a result, his deficits versus 2019 over the same period are $8.6 trillion worse.

And all this has occurred despite tax revenues being $2.5 trillion above pre-pandemic levels thanks to Republicans’ 2017 growth-spurring tax cuts. So, Biden cannot blame his poor performance on low revenues.

Of course, Biden apologists will argue against simply using a static 2019 result that does not move as a baseline, since things change over time. So, let us compare Biden’s performance to CBO’s May 2019 baseline that assumed a continuation of policy at pre-pandemic levels.

Biden’s excessive spending levels have been well above the pre-pandemic baseline, too. Biden has spent $4 trillion and run a deficit of $2.5 trillion above CBO’s pre-pandemic levels.

Worst of all is the future impact of this president’s profligacy. Because of Biden’s past and present spending surge, he has raised the spending baseline for future years, too.

The catastrophic result is seen by comparing CBO’s pre-pandemic 2019 baseline to its latest one from May 2023 that builds in Biden’s budget-busting. According to CBO’s baselines, Biden’s policies have raised baseline spending by $908 billion and the deficit by $500 billion for 2024 alone. This single-year hit is simply due to what Biden’s overspending has baked into the budget baseline.

Worst of all is the effect Biden’s policies will have over future years. In other words, let us imagine what another four years of Biden budget-busting would look like, even if he did no more damage than he has already done. Compare CBO’s May 2021 baseline to its pre-pandemic May 2019 baseline for fiscal 2024 through 2028, and we see spending is $4.7 trillion and deficits $2.7 trillion higher. This is simply the future Biden-effect that will have to be addressed over the next five years.

How Biden has baked the budget is painful to see. What caused it is obvious: When federal spending leaped from $4.4 trillion in 2019 to $6.6 trillion in 2020 during COVID, a 50% jump, Biden effectively kept it there.

Biden has overspent, and as a result, America is overdrawn. By spending at continued crisis levels, Biden has created his own crisis. The inescapable conclusion is that Biden is seeking to buy his reelection. And he intends to stick America with the tab on the deficit down payment for his next four years.

Even if Biden loses the White House, his profligate legacy will remain after him — so even if the people ditch Joe, they will have to keep the bill.

J.T. Young was a professional staffer in the House and Senate from 1987-2000, served in the Department of Treasury and Office of Management and Budget from 2001-2004, and was director of government relations for a Fortune 20 company from 2004-2023.