I want to clarify this cleanly because the numbers I used were not padded, invented, or taken from partisan outlets. They came directly from the U.S. Treasury’s Historical Debt Outstanding dataset and from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, which applies the same scoring method to every administration going back decades. The $8.4 trillion figure for Trump is CRFB’s official estimate of his approved ten-year borrowing. That is the standard method used by CBO, JCT, and CRFB for all presidents, and it includes the 2017 tax cuts, routine spending, and the emergency COVID packages. You cited the raw debt increase from 2017 to 2021, which is correct at about $7.8 trillion, but that is a different measurement. Treasury numbers show the raw rise in debt during the term; CRFB numbers show the ten-year effect of laws that were enacted. Those two figures will never be identical because they measure different things. The ten-year score is not a partisan trick—it is how federal budget law requires tax and spending effects to be calculated, for every administration without exception.
Your point about the tax cuts is correct in one respect: about $2.4 trillion of Trump’s long-term borrowing came from the 2017 tax law’s revenue effects. But again, that is not selective scoring. All tax legislation is scored over ten years by statute. That rule did not start with Trump and does not change under Biden. Likewise, the Inflation Reduction Act was scored over a full ten-year window by CBO, JCT, and CRFB, and all three found that it modestly reduced deficits once offsets were included. You may dislike the law, but the claim that it was not scored or was hidden is simply not supported by the official record. The $6.1 trillion figure you quoted for Biden’s “non-COVID debt” does not come from CBO, JCT, CRFB, Moody’s, or any other recognized fiscal authority. It comes from political commentary, not from the bodies responsible for legally mandated scorekeeping. If CRFB had documented a $6.1 trillion long-term burden from Biden’s policies, they would have published it—they did not. Instead, they published a $4.7 trillion figure using the same method they used to score Trump at $8.4 trillion.
The idea that the “DNC press corps,” OMB, or any other partisan actor is hiding the numbers doesn’t fit the facts. The values I cited came from the Treasury for raw debt totals and from CRFB for long-term borrowing. Treasury reports are non-political by definition, and CRFB is widely recognized as one of the most consistent independent fiscal monitors in Washington. None of the numbers I used came from OMB, and none depended on any partisan interpretation. I quoted the debt at the start and end of each term, and I quoted CRFB’s long-term borrowing totals for both presidents. Those figures are public, time-stamped, and applied with identical methodology across administrations.
I’ve said from the start that the dispute here is not about the data; the data are straightforward and publicly verifiable. The disagreement is about the narrative being inferred from the data. I did not claim Trump personally caused every dollar of his increase, and I did not claim Biden personally caused every dollar of his. I stated what the debt levels were during their terms and what the scoring bodies recorded as the long-term effects of the legislation each signed. The empirical record is consistent; the interpretation you are reading into it is not something I wrote.
Maybe this will help:
U.S. Treasury – Official Debt Totals
Historical Debt Outstanding (raw Treasury numbers):
U.S. Treasury – Official Deficit Totals
Monthly Treasury Statement – Deficit data:
CRFB – Trump vs. Biden Debt Comparison (long-term borrowing)
Trump and Biden National Debt comparison:
The national debt is on course to reach a record share of the economy under the next presidential administration, due in part to policies approved by Presidents Trump and Biden during their ti
www.crfb.org
CRFB – Trump Total Borrowing Analysis
How Much Did President Trump Add to the Debt?
2024-01-10-Note: We published a more comprehensive, up-to-date
www.crfb.org
CRFB – Biden Total Borrowing Analysis
How Much Has President Biden Added to the Debt?
2025-04-03-Over the four years of President Biden’s term – from January 2021 through January 2025 – we estimate that he approved $4.7 trillion in new ten-year debt through legislation and exe
www.crfb.org
CBO – Score of Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)
CBO Cost Estimate for H.R. 5376 (Inflation Reduction Act):
JCT – Score of Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts (TCJA)
Joint Committee on Taxation revenue estimate for Public Law 115-97:
Optional Neutral Confirmation Sources (broader fiscal context)
CBO – Long-Term Budget Outlook
This shows major drivers of federal deficits long-term (healthcare, interest, aging, etc.):
GAO – Fiscal Exposures Report
Government Accountability Office’s official review of structural long-term fiscal pressures:
www.consumeraffairs.com
