Two days ago, President Trump sent out a tweet crowing that the national debt went down by $12 billion in the first month of his administration, as compared to the first month of the Obama regime, when it went up by $200 billion.
If Trump really believes that he is responsible for that reduction in the amount of the national debt, we are in much bigger trouble than everyone thinks we are. But if he didn’t really believe it, why would he say it?
The debt ceiling debate is upon us once again. The total amount of the federal government’s debt — currently $19.979 trillion and climbing by the second — is about to run up the maximum amount permitted by law.
The debate will revolve around whether Congress should raise the debt ceiling again, in order to permit the feds to borrow even more money into the future and add to their already existing level of debt.
If all this sounds familiar, it’s because every time Congress is faced with this issue, it caves and lifts the debt ceiling again and again. That’s how the amount of the federal debt has reached almost $20 trillion dollars.
That debt is real. The federal government owes real money to real people and real entities who have loaned their money to the government.
The problem, of course, is that it’s not federal officials, including Trump, who will be paying back creditors with their own personal funds. Instead, it is taxpayers who will have their money taken from them by the IRS in order to pay off the creditors.
