1/ Something I've heard repeatedly from my Trump-supporting friends is that President Trump is reversing the increase in the national debt that President Obama created.
This is just not true.
This is just not true.
2/ The easiest way to know it isn't true is that in the next few months, the Republican-controlled Congress will vote to raise the national debt limit.
3/ If President Trump and the Republicans were *actually* lowering the national debt (they aren't) then they wouldn't have to raise the debt limit. It is really that simple.
4/ In fact, the opposite is happening. Government borrowing will spike this year by over 80% compared to last year. washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/w…
5/ The US Government is set to borrow nearly One Trillion (with a t) dollars this year. Why? To finance the GOP tax cuts for the wealthy.
6/ Take a look for yourself. 
7/ Borrowing to spend money, especially during recessions, can make a lot of sense. Borrowing to give more money to billionaires when unemployment is low.... makes no sense.
8/ Unless you aren't worried about working people are instead convinced that rich people pay too much money in taxes.
9/ And that's what this is all about. If the economy is doing so well, why are we giving millionaires a tax cut? Why did we need a knockout fight to extend CHIP? Why aren't we funding community health clinics?
10/ If the economy is doing so well *and* the national debt is an existential threat to America, why are the Republicans borrowing money to finance tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires? Why are they voting to raise the debt limit?
11/ Republican tax cuts are not grounded in any kind of empirical observation about the economy. It's ideology. Pure and simple.
12/ And despite Republican fear mongering about Obama and the national debt, they don't care about the national debt one bit. Not one bit. And that is why they will vote to raise the national debt limit.
13/ It would be incredibly fiscally reckless for Democrats to *not* vote for a debt limit increase. Whether or not it is more or less reckless than enabling a Republican Party that is increasingly detached from the truth and reality... TBD.
14/ It's a genuinely difficult question. Failing to raise the debt limit would spark a global financial panic and it would permanently damage US credibility in the eyes of global financial markets.
15/ But Dems voting to raise the limit because the GOP doesn't have the votes is enablement of Republican lies about the debt, about taxes, and about our economy — pure and simple.
16/ So what do you do if you're the Dems? Vote against a debt limit increase to force GOP to actually grapple with their own rhetoric and *own* the fact that they don't actually care about the national debt? Or do the "responsible" thing and vote in favor of it?
fin/ It's a genuinely difficult question. Neither option is good. The former is bad in both the short- and long-term but (maybe) forces the GOP to snap out of it and realize just how far they have strayed from reality. The latter kicks the can. Again.
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