The Hardest Job in the World: The American Presidency

by John Dickerson

Now the issue of debts and deficits has virtually disappeared from the Republican conversation. As President Trump’s director of the Office of Management and Budget, Mick Mulvaney, admitted, “My party is very interested in deficits when there is a Democrat in the White House. The worst thing in the whole world was deficits when Barack Obama was the president. Then Donald Trump became president, and we’re a lot less interested as a party.”19 Donald Trump’s policies, including his signature domestic achievement, the tax cut, have ballooned the deficit beyond even the most pessimistic estimates. Long-term entitlement costs continue to rise with no plan for reform in place or advocated by the president or leaders in Congress. At President Trump’s 2020 State of the Union, Republicans responded with a standing ovation when the president announced a new benefit of paid family leave, the kind of federal guarantee party leaders once used to rail against.