Posted on 12/05/2018 8:09:09 PM PST by E. Pluribus Unum
President Trump is dismissing the importance of paying down the national debt, saying he won’t be in office to take blame for the nation's fiscal crisis when it becomes even more unsustainable, according to a report Wednesday.
The national debt sits at $21 trillion and counting. As a candidate, when the national debt was $19 trillion, Trump promised to erase the entire debt “over a period of eight years.”
Senior administration officials showed Trump charts and graphics in early 2017 that illustrated a “hockey stick” spike in the debt in the coming years. Trump said the data showed the national debt would only become untenable after he left office, the Daily Beast reported.
“Yeah, but I won’t be here,” Trump said.
People close to the president told the news outlet that the national debt never actually bothered Trump, despite his public comments about it.
“I never once heard him talk about the debt,” one former White House official said.
White House spokesman Hogan Gidley said it’s also the responsibility of Congress to cut back on spending.
“While the president has and will continue to do everything in his power to rein in Washington’s out-of-control spending, the Constitution gives Congress the power of the purse, and it’s time for them to work with this president to reduce the debt,” he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
The GOP Congress and the courts have fought him at every step. It’s not on him.
You still will not address the real spending, ss, medicare, etc you want me to pay for it. 2018 spending levels is too much .gov!!
The federal budget is $4T and spending on personnel is minuscule.
Heck, I could agree with that...I guess it is a sign of how bad it is that even that is just as unrealistic as spending cuts.
I would be ecstatic if we could hold spending levels to 2018 levels. Sigh. I don’t even think that has a snowball’s chance in Hell. But ya gotta hold on to something.
Listen, because I want to grow the economy doesn’t mean I am for ridiculous federal spending. Are you some kind of nut?
You do know that the Republican Party was all about the tariff until WWII?
Cuts are out of the question unfortunately. But holding to a baseline I think could be do-able.
Trump should at least be given credit for saying what every other politician is thinking. ...Although I thought I heard Cheney say something once that amounted to as much...
Again, you think 4 trill is good. Wrong answer. Interest rates will rise. More defaults will come. This idea that we are gonna grow enough to counter their spending is a fable. You need cuts. Especially in a globalized world with AI, outsourcing, global wage arbitrage and similar concerns.
Did you read my post correctly? Stop Spending!!! Stop welfare for illegals, stop spending. STOP SPENDING!!!
That’s our only hope if we want to give Americans a real future.
I don’t believe he said that, but I am greatly disappointed in his lack of any plan to address the debt. It’s not like president Ocasio-Cortez is going to be able to fix it.
There is zero political will to cut anything unfortunately. But growing the economy, raising tariffs and agreeing on a baseline budget that does not increase year over year is possible.
He is growing the economy and increasing tariffs. That is about the best he can do by himself.
There is no hope of reducing spending now that the democrats have taken the house. Then we have rising interest rates which makes a huge difference when you are talking about 21 trillion. We will crash and burn in the future. No doubt about that.
If the USA were to hold spending now, stop offshoring production, increase tariffs and balance trade there would be hope that in maybe 50 years the deficit would be gone( maybe a surplus) and the debt minuscule compared to GDP.
At 62, I'm still putting in 55 to 70 hours a week. I worked straight through the Thanksgiving weekend leaving me in a quandary to use Christmas, Thanksgiving and two floating holidays before Dec 28th (or lose them) while still working outrageous hours. Friday, my PTO will be paid down from 480 hours to 360 with a new corporate "cap" of 400 hours. The company has pocketed, without compensation, all of my earned PTO hours for the last 3 years. You're maxxed out. No accrual, no pay for hours earned in lieu of accrual. The annual "ethics" training rings hollow. I'll have 27 years with the company on Sunday. I plan to work to 30 years. That will be age 65. My company subsidized healthcare will have been stripped and Medicare shoved down my throat.
The looming Medicare strikes a poor chord. A colleague and friend that worked with me daily for 10 years was forced to Medicare. He had been getting pretty good care for his battle with melanoma. That care was yanked at the end of 2009. I attended his funeral in January 2010.
As for reducing the future debt by dying off...not so fast. I'm a net tax payer. I've never collected penny of benefits. If I die before I retire, the feds immediately lose about $55,000 in tax revenue I'm generating. The state loses about $18,000. The insurance companies miss out on $20,000. That's all effortless income for the government that is going to evaporate.
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The Nations won’t be here in 6 years.
The “kingdoms of men” expire on the Day of Trumpets; so does their money.
I want the border wall built. If you told me it would take another Trillion in debt, I would sign off on that in a heartbeat.
THAT is the only way this country survives.
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