The deficit for 2016 was $552 billion.

[kentuck]

That means the debt is on a pace to increase by over $2 trillion dollars over the next 4 years if Trump does nothing with the taxes.

Do we need to cut taxes or raise taxes? If Obama had let the Bush taxcuts expire, it would have brought in about $300 billion dollars per year. Even at that, there would have been a shortage of revenues to meet government spending.

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http://federal-budget.insidegov.com/l/119/2016

2016 Key Facts

The U.S. government collected $2.99T in tax revenues and spent a total of $3.54T in its 2016 budget, resulting in a deficit of $552B that year. The deficit was 3.3% of its total GDP of $16.5T in 2016.

All numbers are adjusted for inflation.
Total Revenues
$2.99
trillion
Total Spending
$3.54
trillion
Total Surplus/Deficit
-$552
billion
Total Surplus/Deficit as % of GDP
-3.3%
GDP
$16.5

[Igel]

1. Yup.

Part of that was because of when the tax year breaks. It fell to '16 instead of '17.

But while much of the deficit in 2011 and following years was always "due to the recession," there was also increased discretionary spending. So even with a tax increase and with TARP repayments + interest and the Freddy and Fannie income, the deficit's bigger.

On 1/20/09 we went from "$300 billion/year is unsustainable and will destroy the economy" to "deficits don't matter--in fact, deficit spending is good."

Around 1/22/17 we went back to "any deficit is too much."