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 ...
We need to tax Western Union remittances to Mexico at 50%.
Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what he said.
Raising taxes now will slow the economy and reduce revenue.
Me neither :-\
Trump isn’t going to commit political suicide. He is well aware of the fate of French President Macron.
Inflicting pain on people for the sake of a long term goal is stupid. If anything, the Democrats intend to do the opposite.
Trump isn’t going to allow them to portray him as a heartless Uncie Scrooge while they swoop in to be defenders of the Little Guy.
It would be nice to reduce government spending. It isn’t going to happen.
So we are going to buy this story of what Trump supposedly said?
R's run up the debt and pass it off to the D's. Dems run up the debt and then blame the R's. The cycle repeats.
With a Democrat House, spending cuts are DOA. You won’t hear about them in next year’s SOTU address.
Congress won’t stop spending, that’s the problem.
More revenue begets more spending.
Never a reduction.
No, he won’t be there, and America just put the Demonrats back in charge of the purse, so I don’t think Americans really give a crap about it anyway.
Politicians are risk-averse. It would take a bipartisan agreement to make deficit reduction happen.
When pigs can fly.
Doesn’t matter now. The time to fix the debt was years ago. We are already off the cliff; gravity just hasn’t pulled us down yet.
The Democrats will include tax increases in every piece of legislation they approve. In the name of deficit reduction, they will be as hell-bent on having Trump sign a tax increase while at the same time they are holding impeachment hearings.
Agree.
I want to hear him say all of this....roll tape, FakeNewsMedia.
Which is why I am trying extra hard to get out of debt NOW. Nancy wants here crumbs back, the witch
I doubt he said that because it just doesn’t sound typical of him.
The Dims are going to try to sucker Trump into a tax increase. 2020 is going to be a replay of 1992.
It’s politically impossible, and would cause severe economic hardship, to make the needed cutbacks to pay down the national debt.
The best thing Trump can do to deal with future debt is grow the economy, which is exactly what he has done and is continuing to do. It’s not like either party gives a damn either.
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