OHIO — Every four years, an assessment is made of what a president will leave behind to the next administration.
Jeff Haymond, professor of economics at Cedarville University, said when it comes to the economy, it’s “fairly strong right now. We’ve had robust growth over the last couple years as COVID is over. Supply chain disruptions are mostly contained at this point.”
Still, he said, there’s a big problem now, that stems from the Biden Administration. That glaring problem is the country’s national debt which now sits at 36.3 trillion and is still growing.
“So that’s the real challenge for Mr. Trump as he goes forward. How do you sustain that?”
Plus, he noted that interest rates are up.
With that and projected budget deficits up over the next decade, “I think that’s the number one problem that the Trump administration is going to have is how much flexibility does he have to do all the things he wants to do, given the outstanding debt and high deficits.”
Then there’s immigration policy. Haymond indicated concerns over what is and is not regulated.
“We, as well as pretty much every other country in the world, is now in demographic decline such that we need immigration,” he said. “We aren’t having enough children on our own in the United States. So long term, we’re going to have to figure out what to do with immigration.”
One silver lining Haymond sees is that Trump has noted previously that there is a goal to get high-skilled, foreign workers that come to the U.S.
“We need top talent, so that’s a good thing,” he said. “So, but if he has drastic deportations of millions upon millions, that’s a real problem, because, as we know, there are many jobs that people just do not want to take.”