How Trump's team amassed a $1 trillion war chest for Biden to deploy

[DonViejo]

Despite concerns that markets will be flooded with new U.S. government debt, the Treasury might not have to change its borrowing plans much at all.

By VICTORIA GUIDA

03/14/2021 07:00 AM EDT

Republicans are bashing the new $1.9 trillion pandemic relief package for further ballooning the federal debt, but it’s the Trump administration that greased the path for a smooth federal spending spree.

The Treasury has a cash pile of well over $1 trillion, which will allow the government to quickly disburse money in line with the sweeping new law, including direct checks to millions of Americans that are expected to start hitting bank accounts in the coming week. That robust rainy-day fund was built last year by then-Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who preemptively cranked up the pace of government borrowing, unsure of how and when Congress might mandate further relief measures.

So, despite concerns that markets will be flooded with new U.S. government debt to pay for the rescue package, the Treasury Department might not have to change its borrowing plans much at all to fund the legislation signed into law by President Joe Biden on Thursday. “There are enormous implications for everyone else, but the Treasury was out in front of this nine months ago,” said Lou Crandall, chief economist at research firm Wrightson ICAP.

The advance moves by the Trump team are proving to be key to limiting turbulence in government debt markets from such massive spending. Bond yields have already been inching up in recent months due to brighter prospects for the economy, raising the cost of new borrowing — a dynamic that’s rippling through markets and is expected to be a central focus as Federal Reserve policy makers meet in the coming week.

more
https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/14/covid-relief-package-federal-debt-475622

[unc70]

1. Something Trump admin might have done right

[SunSeeker]

13. But I'm sure it was for the wrong reasons.

Mnuchin created that debt to facilitate a slush fund for Trump, not to help the American people. If it was meant to help the American people, it would have been spent on the American people. It wasn't spent, even during the massive death and suffering November-January.

[PSPS]

2. "preemptively cranked up the pace of government borrowing" for "further relief measures" my ass

He was doing this so it could be stolen by/given away to trump, himself, and wealthy GOP donors.

[GopherGal]

4. Po-TAE-to, Po-TAH-to

We say "COVID relief bill", Repukes think "give-away to wealthy GOP donors"

Had the 2020 election gone the other way, any COVID relief bill might have had very different content.

[jmowreader]

10. There probably wouldn't have been one in the first place

[blm]

5. Exactly

[Eid Ma Clack Shaw]

6. Maybe goes some way towards explaining just how remarkably lock-step

the GOP was with Trump even post-insurrection.

[central scrutinizer]

14. Just refilling his personal ATM

[JohnnyRingo]

3. So thank you for doing nothing until Biden took over?

It seems that money was earmarked for a Covid plan that never materialized.

Mnuchin assumed any sane president would need that cash to fight the virus spread. He underestimated the inept madness of Donald J Trump.

[NoMoreRepugs]

7. My tinfoil hat take on it?? Somehow the tRUMP crime family

thought they could get their hands on billions of dollars.

[Wounded Bear]

8. Well, the Former Guy was saying he wanted another big covid bill...

but repubs didn't do it. Mnuchin was probably working on the idea that they would do what TFG was pushing, so he 'saved' up the surplus funds for that.

[Vinca]

9. Well that pretty much rains on the GOP parade. Trump already borrowed the money.

[mountain grammy]

11. Right? Kind of the beauty of it all.

[ZonkerHarris]

12. Trump borrowed the money but they were holding it back and not using it.

[SunSeeker]

15. They were probably going to use it for another tax cut for the rich.

If Trump had been reelected, and captured Congress, they would have revoked the Estate Tax. Hell, Republicans are trying to do that right now, even as they sit in the minority.