It’s thumped. Biden’s been doing it and everyone else does it.

Maybe the austerity charade is over. Joe Biden didn’t give the normal hat tips to it on the campaign trail and has shown little restraint in spending since his inauguration. Spending popped up to $7.2 trillion and the debt increased to $30.2 trillion in his first year in the White House.

Here’s what people ought to take from the 21st century presidents’ failure to follow through on their debt and spending promises. Limiting spending and paying down debt is still a generally popular stance. People want their elected officials to act like adults and live within their means. Yet presidents disregard that expectation when faced with the crisis of the day, which encourages them to spend more and go further into debt. War, recession, pandemics, or even making good on a different campaign pledge is a higher priority than budget cuts and extra debt payments. As the spending and debt trends show, spending stays up even when the temporary reasons end.

The lack of restraint is bolstered by another problem. There is an interest group behind every dollar of federal spending, and that group’s highest lobbying priority is to keep collecting cash. While it may be popular to reduce spending in general, cuts to particular areas can get messy. Both Republicans and Democrats opposed a recommendation from President Trump to reduce spending on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, even though the program has no mandate to improve water quality, enhance biodiversity or even to get the lakes back to some previous state.