Of course. The Debt has been getting worse for decades now. The Deficit hasn't been balanced since the end of Bill Clinton (which also had a Republican Congress that helped him pass it) and the beginning of the Bush Jr years.
Where did I say such a thing as the President has no say in fiscal policy?? That was your takeaway from my comment?
You kind of implied that the Republican Congress saved the day. At second glance, perhaps I overinterpreted. Just that whenever I showed a chart of the increase in the national debt under different presidents, some of the Rightsters here always looked to deflect blame from the (Republican) president by pointing to Congress.
Congress does have the job of making the budget. So the spending plan, if you will, is developed by Congress - but not without serious and direct input from the office of the President (no one is going to pass a budget they know the President won't sign unless they're playing political showmanship game). So it is important to consider not only who the President is, but who the congressional support was from. Both get equal credit, or equal blame.
I think the Fed shoudl act like the independent body that they are and ignore the stock market already. I am not sure they needed to drop rates so much during the pandemic or past times because it was not a financial crisis and rates were already quite low. You can only go to zero. Problem is U.S. stopped being a net saver decades ago so rates only matter to people as to what the cost of borrowing money will be not to get more from their savings. People really don't give a shit that savings accounts pay .49% but they want their 4% mortgage dropped another 50 basis points so that they can buy an even bigger house they cannot afford. The interest rate system is not built on a premise of borrowers and not savers so rates can never go up by any amount anymore or it "cripples" the economy. Raise rates and businesses reduce their bottom line for short-term borrowing and homeowners stop buying houses which is all politicians care about but no one is excited to see people save more. The minute we flipped from an industrial manufactoring economy with a trade surplus to a pure consumer economy with a deficit our entire economic system changed while policies stayed the same. Case in Point- Consumer driven economies means you can never tariff imports and go after countries with unfair trade practices because it raises the price of consumer goods in the U.S. - people don't give a shit about made in the USA. So trade policy is fake hammers that bend as soon as Karen has to pay more for her cheap shit from overseas. Consumer driven economies means interest rates matter for borrowing only to fund our consumerism. Credit card rates at 18% still don't stop people from spending and overusing them. People want low rates to buy houses and it is political suicide to advocate for higher rates. Consumer driven economies create budget policies that spend to support families ability to spend, not save. Also budghet expenditures go to industries that cannot compete but are artificually kept afloat. We become a net service economy which fuels more spending. Consumer driven economies dictate wealth and class based purely on what you can afford to buy with credit. No credit? You are poor and live in a shithole you still cannot afford so you will never climb out of it except to go into debt. Imagine if you gave every poor person in the inner city access to $100,000 line of credit at 1% interest rate over 30 years? Take away the losers that would buy useless shit and go deeper into a debt hole, you would have numerous people who purchase transportation to get a better job, move out of the inner city to rent elsewhere, invest in some education, etc.. THe money Congress throws at the problem never addresses the economy we are in and what is required. Anyway..my point is we are a nation of greedy buyers and "got to have it" and that drives all economy policy and Congressional decisions..... think about it and pull up anything and you see the reasons from both parties.