US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside pandemic

Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by adventured on Thursday October 23, 2025 @12:07PM (#45683508)

No Democrat has run an actual budget surplus in the past 50 years. Bill Clinton's supposed two budget surplus years were in fact short-falls. Debt expanded $200+ billion the two Clinton budget surplus years and actual revenue failed to cover actual federal expenditures. They used magic math to lie about that surplus.

Obama and Biden ran gigantic budget deficits.

None of which is meant to paint the Republicans in a good light. Why pretend the Democrats are doing something they're not? Extreme partisan politics is the single biggest problem the US has right now.

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Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by atmavatar on Thursday October 23, 2025 @12:14PM (#45683616)

Every Republican administration in the last 50 years (save Bush Sr.) has passed a giant tax cut without cutting spending nearly enough to pay for it (and usually increasing spending). Trump himself has done this twice.

Let's not pretend like the two parties are the same with regard to fiscal irresponsibility.

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Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by snowwrestler on Thursday October 23, 2025 @12:13PM (#45683588)

The U.S. government structurally cannot run a surplus because when they have income in excess of obligations they store it in U.S. Treasury bonds, which creates offsetting debt.

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Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by Capricorn2481 on Thursday October 23, 2025 @12:15PM (#45683622)

> Obama and Biden ran gigantic budget deficits

If you actually look at the deficit year by year, Obama and Biden each entered office with a huge economic crisis that ballooned the deficit, and then lowered it year by year. I mean, it was highest under Trump.

And if you look at Bush and Trump, they started with a lower deficit and raised it year by year.

If your marker is a "budget surplus", nobody does that. The only people that get close are Democrats because they literally reduce spending. And then a Republican takes office, bangs on about the deficit so they can slash social programs, but spends even more than they slashed on military. This is not hidden information.

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Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by SoftTalker on Thursday October 23, 2025 @12:25PM (#45683765)

You don't care that ~15% of federal spending is interest on the debt?

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Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by grigri907 on Thursday October 23, 2025 @12:38PM (#45683917)

I don't. One of the largest holders of US debt is US citizens' investment and retirement accounts. It's a win-win situation

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Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by mrguyorama on Thursday October 23, 2025 @12:56PM (#45684138)

Republicans objectively don't

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Re:US hits $38T in debt. Fastest accumulation of $1T outside... by ModernMech on Thursday October 23, 2025 @04:43PM (#45686843)

You're referencing a chart like this:

https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/INTERAC...

Notably when the background is red, the line goes down, and when the background is blue, the line goes up.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/20/the-us-has-36-trill...

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