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Did we forget about the national debt?

The U.S. House passed a bill Thursday that would partially repeal and replace Obamacare, but there’s another knotty problem ahead. What are we going to do about the federal budget and deficit?

The Trump administration has a $1.1 trillion budget blueprint for fiscal 2018 that would increase defense and homeland security spending while cutting areas such as foreign aid, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Endowment for the Arts.

“The thing we aren’t talking about is debt,” says former U.S. Sen. George LeMieux, who is chairman of the Gunster law firm. The debt was the biggest concern when he was in the Senate from 2009 to 2011.

Federal debt has grown from $5 trillion in 2000 to $10 trillion in 2010. It’s now at $14.4 trillion and projections call for it to hit $20 trillion by 2020. If we cut the corporate tax rate to 15 percent, which has been suggested by President Trump, it would make the debt balloon by another $2 trillion, LeMieux said in a talk about Trump’s first 100 days in office.

Managing debt will be more difficult as Baby Boomers retire and create more strain on Medicare and Social Security, LeMieux says. President Trump has indicated he doesn’t want to cut such entitlements.

The interest payments on federal debt, hit a record $252.8 billion in 2008, but have been helped by a recovering economy and low interest rates.

However, Americans have reason to worry as LeMieux suggests. A chart on the Motley Fool website indicates rising interest rates could push net interest payments to about $550 billion by 2020.

LeMieux could well be right in comparing the U.S. government to consumers with a lot of debt piled on high-interest credit cards. Don’t be surprised if more fiscally conservative legislators decide that cutting the corporate tax rate from 35 percent to 20 percent is about as much as they can stomach.

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Drew Limsky

Drew Limsky

Editor-in-Chief

BIOGRAPHY

Drew Limsky joined Lifestyle Media Group in August 2020 as Editor-in-Chief of South Florida Business & Wealth. His first issue of SFBW, October 2020, heralded a reimagined structure, with new content categories and a slew of fresh visual themes. “As sort of a cross between Forbes and Robb Report, with a dash of GQ and Vogue,” Limsky says, “SFBW reflects South Florida’s increasingly sophisticated and dynamic business and cultural landscape.”

Limsky, an avid traveler, swimmer and film buff who holds a law degree and Ph.D. from New York University, likes to say, “I’m a doctor, but I can’t operate—except on your brand.” He wrote his dissertation on the nonfiction work of Joan Didion. Prior to that, Limsky received his B.A. in English, summa cum laude, from Emory University and earned his M.A. in literature at American University in connection with a Masters Scholar Award fellowship.

Limsky came to SFBW at the apex of a storied career in journalism and publishing that includes six previous lead editorial roles, including for some of the world’s best-known brands. He served as global editor-in-chief of Lexus magazine, founding editor-in-chief of custom lifestyle magazines for Cadillac and Holland America Line, and was the founding editor-in-chief of Modern Luxury Interiors South Florida. He also was the executive editor for B2B magazines for Acura and Honda Financial Services, and he served as travel editor for Conde Nast. Magazines under Limsky’s editorship have garnered more than 75 industry awards.

He has also written for many of the country’s top newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Miami Herald, Boston Globe, USA Today, Worth, Robb Report, Afar, Time Out New York, National Geographic Traveler, Men’s Journal, Ritz-Carlton, Elite Traveler, Florida Design, Metropolis and Architectural Digest Mexico. His other clients have included Four Seasons, Acqualina Resort & Residences, Yahoo!, American Airlines, Wynn, Douglas Elliman and Corcoran. As an adjunct assistant professor, Limsky has taught journalism, film and creative writing at the City University of New York, Pace University, American University and other colleges.