Reminder: I’ll be speaking at the JFK Lancer conference and also at the CAPA conference. The Lancer conference is being held on November 22-24 in Dallas. The CAPA conference is now being held online. There is also another excellent JFK conference on the same weekend sponsored by the JFK Historical Group. All three of them are fantastic JFK-assassination-related conferences. I highly recommend registering for all three and then picking and choosing which sessions you would like to attend at all three conferences. The registration prices are moderate and it’s a great way to support three great conferences. I will have some of my JFK books at my presentations at the Lancer conference to autograph and sell at a discounted price. I hope to see you all there!
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Why am I so certain that Donald Trump and his merry band of Republicans will not reduce federal spending and debt? Because they are Republicans. Republicans, by definition, are big spenders and big talkers. They always talk a big game about getting rid of “waste, fraud, and abuse” but then end up increasing federal spending and the federal government’s debt load.
“This time, things will be different, Jacob! This time the Republicans will really drastically reduce federal spending and debt. Donald Trump will force them to do so.”
Really? Like the last time that Trump was president? Correct me if I’m wrong but I do believe that the last time around, Trump promised to reduce the national debt and instead increased it. In fact, according to a January 14, 2021, article on propublica.org, “The national debt has risen by almost $7.8 trillion during Trump’s time in office. That’s nearly twice as much as what Americans owe on student loans, car loans, credit cards and every other type of debt other than mortgages, combined, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. It amounts to about $23,500 in new federal debt for every person in the country.”
Moreover, wasn’t it Trump who began the process of sending out all those “free” Covid stimulus checks to everyone? In criticizing the federal government’s response to Covid, why do Trumpsters forget about that?
“But he’s changed, Jacob! This time Donald Trump really means it. This time he really is going to slash federal spending and debt. Why, he’s even appointed Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to his new Department of Efficiency. You’ll see, Jacob! Federal spending and debt are about to go down because Musk and Ramaswamy will make the welfare state, the national-security establishment, the warfare state, the managed economy, the regulated society, the administrative state, the drug war, and the war on immigrants more efficient.”
But that ignores a critically important point: Musk and Ramswamy are Republicans. Why is that important? Because Republicans, by definition, are big spenders and big talkers! That’s how we know that their purported quest to slash federal spending and debt by making the federal government more efficient is pure nonsense.
Recall Ronald Reagan. I think it’s safe to say that Reagan was what Republicans would call the most “free-enterprise-oriented” Republican president in the last 100 years — much more so than Donald Trump. Reagan too promised to reduce federal spending and debt when he became president. The result? According to Wikipedia, “During Reagan’s presidency, the federal debt held by the public nearly tripled in nominal terms, from $738 billion to $2.1 trillion. This led to the U.S. moving from the world’s largest international creditor to the world’s largest debtor nation.”
Like I say, the very definition of Republican is big spender and big talker.
Still don’t believe me? Fair enough. On January 1, 2025, Trump, Musk, Ramaswamy, and other Trumpsters will have the opportunity to prove me wrong. That’s the date that the suspension of the debt ceiling expires.
The debt ceiling is the maximum amount of debt that the Congress is permitted to incur. This maximum amount is set by Congress. It is an explicit acknowledgment that too much governmental debt is a very bad thing for the citizenry of a nation. After all, don’t forget that it is American taxpayers who are ultimately responsible for paying back that debt. The federal debt now amounts to $36 trillion. Each taxpayer’s share of the debt amounts to $272,821. I wonder how many taxpayers include that liability on their loan applications. Click here to see the magnitude of the problem.
Why was the debt ceiling suspended until January 1? Because both Republicans and Democrats did not want it to a subject of controversy for either party during the presidential campaign. So they jointly cut a deal to suspend the debt ceiling until after the presidential election — specifically, to January 1.
So what happens on January 1? The debt ceiling will be reached! That means no new debt can be incurred — unless Congress votes to lift the debt ceiling, which it always does when the ceiling is reached.
But this time, things are different, right? Republican Donald Trump has been reelected president. Although the old Congress will still be in session on January 1, the Republicans still control the U.S. House. Therefore, Trump, Musk, and Ramaswamy can instruct House Republicans to block any effort to raise the debt ceiling.
That would mean that the budget would immediately have to be balanced. No new debt would mean an immediate slashing of federal expenditures, so that expenditures would equal tax revenues (and no new debt).
Isn’t that what Trump, Musk, Ramaswamy, and other Trumpsters say they want to do? Don’t they say they want to slash federal expenditures by some $2 trillion? Well, here is the perfect opportunity to show that they mean business. No raising of the debt ceiling come January. Federal expenditures will have to be slashed so that the budged will be balanced.
But of course we all know that that won’t happen. Republicans will cave and lift the debt ceiling. Republicans always cave. That’s what makes them Republicans. Big spenders and big talkers. And big borrowers too.
