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Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by rbanffy on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:10PM (#49367251)
I guess it’s time to elect a couple democrats to curb the deficit while solving the impending social collapse.

Unfortunately, I don’t think that will happen this time.

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Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by codeTired on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @06:45PM (#49368140)
So, I am assuming you are native?
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by indoorfish on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:16PM (#49368410)
I think they are commenting on the OP being in Ireland
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Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by cyanydeez on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @06:34PM (#49368040)
the history has demonstrated these are Republican problems.

Democrats are shit for other things, but not for fisical stupidity like cutting taxes and rasing spending.

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Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by seanmcdirmid on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @06:48PM (#49368167)
No, republicans have always raised spending more than democrats. They just have no impulse control, and only worry about the budget when a Democrat is in charge.
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Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by thunderfork on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:23PM (#49368481)
this is a fact you can look up
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by nomel on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @09:35PM (#49369445)
Why does nobody post references anymore!? These are simple facts that nobody should be arguing about.

https://www.investopedia.com/democrats-vs-republicans-who-ha...

> Republican presidents added about $1.4 trillion per four-year term, compared to $1.2 trillion added by Democrats since 1913.

> Democratic presidents have added a total of $18 trillion to the national debt since 1913 (adjusted for inflation), while Republicans have added $17.3 trillion

So everyone downvoting and flagging people saying it's a problem with both parties should be ashamed. Tribalism is stupid.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by cyanydeez on Thursday August 20, 2026 @06:34PM (#49381188)
lmgtfy and ask chatgpt; if you cant' ascertain the truth of this statement you live in a delusion.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by nomel on Monday August 24, 2026 @07:33PM (#49427267)
Sure, but with a reference, you can have an argument about the topic, based on facts, rather than an argument about the delusions (looking at the adjacent comments, that's what this was). I don't think the later is appropriate for HN.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by DoesntMatter22 on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @05:59PM (#49367732)
I don't understand that at all. The deficit has been running rampant ever since Clinton left office. Both sides spent with reckless abandon.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by epolanski on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @06:12PM (#49367869)
Trump, 1st term, added 24% of GDP worth of debt.

That's more or less the same number of Obama and Bush, but they served two terms each.

In his second term, he's already added 11% in a record 19 months.

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Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by donohoe on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @10:34PM (#49369782)
They just told you what the difference is.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by DoesntMatter22 on Thursday August 20, 2026 @01:08AM (#49370575)
There is no practical difference. Both parties are glad to drive the car off a cliff
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by rbanffy on Thursday August 20, 2026 @04:01AM (#49371712)
The big difference is that, at the current rate, economic collapse of the US will happen in my lifetime, and I’m almost 60. I wasn’t looking forward to that kind of planetary upheaval for my retirement.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by JKCalhoun on Thursday August 20, 2026 @08:47AM (#49373906)
My wife worries about surviving the next Great Depression. "Do we have enough cash?", "Should I put off retirement?", etc.

I've tried to tell her that we're all going down. Workers will be laid off, markets will crash, real estate will collapse, money will inflate…

Best look instead for ways to try and enjoy life regardless.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by epolanski on Thursday August 20, 2026 @02:04AM (#49370933)
The difference is that this administration is running at double the rate of the previous ones, and George Bush oversaw both two wars and the global financial crisis in 2007.

Your argument "since you're already over the speed limit, 200 or 300 miles per hour don't matter". Sounds asinine.

In any case I didn't say anything about democrats, but for sure, this administration with large tax cuts and increased spending is speeding US into very dangerous territory.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by DoesntMatter22 on Thursday August 20, 2026 @02:50AM (#49371280)
Well all the other administrations were driving 200 or 300 miles over, now we are driving 500 over. It doesn't matter really, if we hit anything (like Japan dumping US treasuries) we may be dead.

The democrats thing was what I had originally replied to. My whole point is that it really doesn't matter who is in the White House really, both sides seem determined to rack up as much debt as possible and it'll probably spiral out of control.

Neither side wants to cut costs (not really), in fact many want to spend more.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by rbanffy on Thursday August 20, 2026 @04:02AM (#49371721)
> now we are driving 500 over

Keep in mind the car is not designed to generate lift at that speed.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by epolanski on Thursday August 20, 2026 @03:57AM (#49371686)
This is true globally, not just in the US, and that's why global debt keeps spiralling.

But I still find the argument "it doesn't matter if you're going 200 or 300 or 500 mph" completely asinine. It does, and it makes an enormous difference when the debt is so big in absolute terms.

You keep forcing an equality that's not there.

At the end of the day it's one specific administration that brought the largest tax cuts in history since 1981's Reagan (another republican) ones while increasing spending.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by rbanffy on Thursday August 20, 2026 @04:03AM (#49371744)
> and that's why global debt keeps spiralling.

Yes, but if the dollar collapses and is replaced by a new reserve currency while other countries have debts in dollars, they win and the US loses. Only the US loses, keep in mind. It’ll be the first time the US experiences that side of the stick.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by DoesntMatter22 on Thursday August 20, 2026 @05:22PM (#49380451)
If the US suffers severely the rest of the world will collapse. There's no scenario in which that doesn't happen. Everything is interdepedant and many non US countries (like Europe, Japan, China) depend heavily on the US.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by DoesntMatter22 on Thursday August 20, 2026 @12:22PM (#49376763)
The point is is that it just doesn’t matter anymore. Neither party is going to stop it. No matter who is in power It’s going to end badly.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by cosmicgadget on Thursday August 20, 2026 @03:31PM (#49379057)
Well, the last president to steer the car away from the cliff came from one party, the other is currently mashing the accelerator toward it.

And that is without considering things like invading Iraq and Afghanistan, creating the global financial crisis, or turning on the money printer at the start of covid.

If you look at this information and say, "no difference" I don't think anyone here can help you.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by DoesntMatter22 on Saturday August 22, 2026 @02:31AM (#49397157)
Almost all of Bill Clinton's policies were to the RIGHT of Trump, so I'm not sure what you are saying exactly. Biden created the most debt in 1 term of any president ever.

You can't really compare one party from 27 years ago to today realistically.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by cosmicgadget on Monday August 24, 2026 @11:02AM (#49420787)
I agree the comparison fades the farther back you go, though there are plenty of policymakers around today and in the Clinton days. I can't do much with something as hamfisted as "Clinton was actually right of Trump" other than to say that parties, not ideologies, are what was brought up in the parent comment.

It is dishonest to talk about Biden's four year deficit without acknowledging the 2020/2021 deficit and monetary policy. See also Obama inheriting the gfc and whatever is going to happen in 2029.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by voxl on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @06:15PM (#49367898)
Don't bother, Republicans are the only ones that care about the debt and their ideology makes them incapable of realizing there very choice of candidates is the exact problem
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by bigstrat2003 on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @06:20PM (#49367926)
Every single administration since the turn of the century, regardless of party, has run a deficit. It's clear that if we want fiscal responsibility (and I do, very much), we can't look to either of the major parties for it. Unfortunately the chances of that are low at best, and on top of that it's not actually very popular to do what is needed to balance the budget. The cold hard reality is that we will need to both raise taxes and cut spending to balance the budget, but lots of people are ideologically opposed to one or both of those things. And even if they aren't, there's no agreement on how to implement said tax hikes/budget cuts. It's a pretty grim situation.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by porkpieshoe on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:23PM (#49368482)
It's helpful to avoid "both sides"-ing, or abandoning all hope.

Clinton through 2001 - ended with a 1.2% GDP surplus

Bush through 2009 - ended with a 9.8% GDP deficit

Obama through 2017 - ended with a 3.4% GDP deficit

Trump through 2021 - ended with a 12.3% GDP deficit

Biden through 2025 - ended with a 5.9% GDP deficit

Trump now - running even higher, though final data isn't yet available.

There's a clear pattern available, where one party reliably leaves makes the situation worse, and the other party reliably makes the situation better. The fact that Democrats cannot undo all of the massive damage done by each Republican administration does not mean "both sides" are the same.

If you want third parties to win, they realistically need to start with local elections, so they can gain momentum and take the spot of one of the majors. (also helpful to get rid of FTTP voting in as many elections as possible).

We're seeing great success with local democratic socialists, who keep showing that government can be a force for good, it can be improved, and it can be done without blowing budgets. It's a promising start, and it's clearly threatening Dems and the GOP alike.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by blooalien on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @11:08PM (#49369934)
> ...or abandoning all hope.

"Abandoning" all hope implies a choice. I never chose to have every last shred of hope and optimism I had forcibly ripped from me and stomped into the dirt by these scumbags we call "leaders" (and their idiot cultists). When will humanity learn that the types of people who become billionaires and trillionaires literally want us all dead? At this point they appear to also want themselves dead too, but it's all gonna be okay in the end, because one of them gets to die last with all the money, thereby "winning" the game.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by b1gTekken on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:09PM (#49368351)
Financially ledger is just a social construct; the IOUs of the past are never paid off as they never mattered.

Finance shit just keeps innumerates and those ignorant of physics believing wild end of the universe theories.

For more look up Debt jubilee's; humans wiped the debt of the dead off the books and no black holes opened within the sun, no gods descended from Olympus and slaughtered the children

Fucking mesmerizing how its not just MAGA nutters obsessed with old spoken and written finance traditions; different semantics than religion but same goal of kowtowing the proletariat.

This site helps propagate such paranoias with the tilt it has towards startup funding and yada yada. Smartest engineers I have ever worked with earned PhDs designing experiments for Tevatron and working on NASA satellites. We often had a laugh at how such social hacks dupe so many wannabe smart and educated people.

On the contrary startup genius software engineers are easily duped by social hacks.

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by just_mc on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:27PM (#49368529)
US Treasuries happen to be a significant part of many peoples retirement savings. So I think your hot take is pretty uninformed.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by b1gTekken on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @09:21PM (#49369360)
"Oh yeah; whattabout this other social illusion. Checkmate atheists."
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by Ohentis on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:32PM (#49368577)
Occasionally countries do default on debt. It doesn't go well.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by b1gTekken on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @09:04PM (#49369240)
Life is the leading cause of death
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by blooalien on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @11:27PM (#49370055)
> Life is the leading cause of death

100% fatality rate thus far...

Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by fragmede on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @06:25PM (#49367970)
I mean, there's fiscally responsible but the welfare department is never gonna make money at the end of the day spending is a political football. Trump's ICE got $10 billion, because what? So now in addition to DEA we have ICE and the TSA, and well, we can't un spend that money and shut them down so, well, shit.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by pstuart on Wednesday August 19, 2026 @07:52PM (#49368733)
ICE got $75 billion, with $45 billion of that allocated for concentration camps. And somebody's got to build those camps and supply them, and their CEOs are all buddies with Trump.
Re:U.S. government debt passes $40T, more than doubling in a... by rbanffy on Thursday August 20, 2026 @04:13AM (#49371804)
> the welfare department is never gonna make money

No, but taxes make money and if you just stop spending on things like ICE and their concentration camps or overpriced and ineffective military action and equipment, you’ll see there is a lot of money left for giving everyone healthcare and a college education.

As an engineer, things like the F-35 are beautiful, and I want them to be developed - but war is changing fast and what was effective a generation ago is now vulnerable to cheap drones.