*** “..the right’s..overriding mission, at which they’ve succeeded smashingly, is to make sure the rich get richer [and big business bigger], and the most direct, unambiguous, universal way of doing that is by keeping their taxes low, no matter the costs… Fiscal responsibility rhetorically pops back to life for Republicans only when they’re out of power in Washington, and only as an argument for achieving their secondary goals of reducing Social Security and Medicare benefits and preventing any major expansion of health or education or other social programs.”
“Irving Kristol, that mastermind and key promoter of remaking the political economy, had candidly announced this new strategy of the right. – right-wing fiscal recklessness, forcing the left into defensive restraint. – in a Wall Street Journal column back in 1980..” [ Kurt Andersen: “Evil Geniuses ].
This post examines how the Republicans have blown up the U.S. national debt in the last 45 years. It was less than $1 trillion when Reagan was inaugurated. Reagan, Bush, Trump tax cuts have produced a $39 trillion U.S. national debt. According to the U.S. Treasury Fiscal Data system, when Trump was inaugurated January 20, 2017. – the U.s. national debt was $19,944,429,217,107. The IMMORAL Trump tax cuts of 2017 and 2025, plus annual $1 trillion interest payments have DOUBLED YOUR. national debt. The consequences are many…..
***. “The second Vice is Lying, the first is running in Debt.” [ Benjamin Franklin: “Poor Richard’s Almanack” ]. [NOTE: Thus Donald John Trump is. GUILTY of THE top two vices !!!!!!!!!!! – and YOU pay for them.]
This post presents excerpts from: “They Blew Up the Debt, Stalled America’s Future, and Stuck You With the Bill. All to Enrich the Top 1% and Win Elections” [ Thom Hartmann; The Progressive Populist; June, 2026 ]:
2]. “This year, America will spend over a trillion dollars just ti pay interest on the current $39 trillion national debt, a debt entirely the result of a 45 year-long GOP scam designed to make the rich richer and elect Republicans, all the while simultaneously screwing Democrats and average working class people.”
9]. “The combined Reagan, Bush, and Trump tax cuts, along with Bush’s two wars add up to more than our current national debt of – $39 trillion. And the only way to fix all this without causing horrible pain for the American people is to undo those three president’s tax cuts and take America back to the tax system we had in 1980.”
10] “..Trump..once bragged: “I’m the king of debt. I’m great with debt. Nobody knows debt better than me.”
***. “Public money ought to be touched with the most scrupulous consciousness of honor.” [ Thomas Paine; 1792 ]
4] “…here’s the “lost opportunity cost”. of what that trillion dollars a year we now pay in interest…on the GOP’s Debt could do for America:
– First, it could guarantee universal childcare and early childhood education nationwide that would free millions of parents to work and start businesses…”
- Second, it could make all public colleges, universities, and trade schools tuition-free, while also wiping out existing federal student loan debt over time.”
– Third, the U.S. could could establish a universal healthcare system or at least a robust public option with zero premiums and minimal out-of-pocket costs, ending medical bankruptcies and improving public health outcomes.”
– Fourth, it could fully fund a national infrastructure modernization program, repairing every deficient bridge in the country, rebuild highways, expand mass transit, and replace aging water systems, including lead pipe removal nationwide.”
– Fifth, a trillion dollars a year could finance a rapid transition to clean energy: building out solar and wind at scale, modernizing the grid, subsidizing home electrification, and accelerating EV infrastructure to catch up with China.”
– Sixth, it could end homelessness in America, with massive savings in healthcare and policing.”
***. “The great can protect themselves, but the poor and humble require the arm and shield of the law.”
[ Andrew Jackson; 7th U.S. President ]
– Seventh, we could provide a guaranteed basic income [ – $500 to $1,000 a month ] to every adult American or a more targeted version for lower- and middle-income households, dramatically reducing poverty.”
– Eighth, it could expand Social Security and Medicare benefits significantly – raising monthly checks, lowering the retirement age, or both – while shoring up the system’s long-term solvency.”
– Ninth, the U.S. could also fund universal paid family and medical leave, so no one ever again has to go to work sick or choose between a paycheck and caring for a newborn or a sick relative.”
– Tenth, it could dramatically increase teacher pay, reducing class sizes, modernizing school facilities, and providing universal free school meals.”
– Eleventh, it could launch a large-scale affordable housing initiative, building millions of. units, stabilizing rents, and helping first-time buyers with down payments.”
– Twelfth, it could rebuild and expand public health infrastructure, including pandemic preparedness, local health departments, research funding, and domestic manufacturing of critical medicines and supplies.”
*** “As a very important source of strength and security, cherish public credit. One method of preserving it is to use it as sparingly as possible.” [ George Washington; September 17, 1796 ]
1] “Republicans in May proposed an appropriations bill that will allocate a billion dollars to pay for Donald Trump’s Golden Epstein Dance Hall [ a.k.a. “Ballroom”]. Every penny of it will be borrowed and we’ll be paying interest on that money for the rest of our lifetimes unless something dramatic changes.”
3]. ‘..by 2030, Fortune magazine reports, we’ll. be paying $2 trillion in interest at the current rate of burn, as Republicans add more and more items to the national debt every day.”
5]. “And even after doing several of…[the 12 things mentioned above in #4 ]…at once, there’d still be room for things like universal broadband, modernizing the postal system, expanding national parks and conservation efforts, and funding scientific research at levels that could accelerate breakthroughs in everything from cancer to renewables to clean water.”
***. “We must not let our rulers load us with perpetual debt.” [ Thomas Jefferson; 7/12/1816 ]
6] “It all started in the 1970s when Republican strategist Jude Wanniski noted that Republicans were viewed as Grinches while Democrats. – who’d brought the people the minimum wage, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, free college, and dozens of other popular programs – were viewed as Santas. His solution was twofold: have Republicans become the “tax cut Santas”. while forcing Democrats to “shoot their own Santa” in the face by cutting back on those gift-like programs.”
7] “The Two Santas scheme has two parts: “When a Republican is in the White House, spend money like a drunken sailor, running up the debt as hard and fast as possible. All this deficit spending…produces “good times”. by stimulating the economy like crazy, making Americans think Republicans are good with economics when in fact they’re only good at spending borrowed money. “When a Democrat is in the White House, start screaming about the debt and how ‘our children will have to pay for this!!!” to force that president and the Democrats in Congress to “shoot’ their own social programs by cutting them back, producing hard times and reducing the deficits.” [NOTE: hw many people voted for Trump – saying he was “a good businessman”!!!!!!!!!!!]
8]. “To justify all this deficit spending, Wanniski invented a term “supply-side economics,” arguing that tax cuts for the morbidly rich would pay for themselves as wealth “trickled down” to average working people, and Art Laffer handily supplied a “curve” that seemed technical and scientific. The media lapped it up. It was all, of course, bullsh*t…”
*** “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentration in the hands of a few. But we can’t have both.” [ Supreme court Justice Louis Brandeis ]
[NOTE: do the research!!! – get the REAL, un-spun NUMBERS. – on income distribution, especially 1947-73; on the average top marginal rates, 1933-1980. – cut in half by Reagan, bush, Trump. We don’t have record numbers of billionaires by accident !!!!!!!!!!! We don’t have a $39 trillion U.s. national debt by accident !!!!!!!!! We don’t have large numbers of potential U.S. blue collar workers unemployed in crafts their fathers were !!!!!!! WE don’t write these posts – all 201 of them – for fun. We want you, Mr. and Mrs. American – to begin to learn the truth.
Bottom line: the unprecedented mass blue and white collar American prosperity – HAS. BEEN. DELIBERATELY. SABOTAGED. AND STOLEN. AWAY. – by the greedy top 1%, by the Far Right, by the Republican Party. Do your own research. The intent is recorded, the programs – G.I.Bill, Social Security, etc. – are recorded. Trump is simply, hopefully, the final conclusion of this decades long PLANNED. THEFT. Trump is now destroying much of the basis for a real democratic society – one that cares about its citizens. Trump is destroying YOUR democratic government right before your eyes – much of this programed by “Project 2025” – itself a project of the Far Right.
With Justice For All 