(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . The $40 Trillion Question [1] ['Douglas Schonenberg', 'Thom Hartmann', 'Chitown Kev', 'Belinda Ridgewood', 'Bill In Portland Maine'] Date: 2026-08-25 Not all debt is created equal. The question isn’t just how much we spend, it’s what we choose to spend it on. There is a number that should scare all of us. Republicans. Democrats. Liberals. Conservatives. $40 trillion. That is approximately how much debt the United States now owes. Look at that number for a moment. $40,000,000,000,000. It is almost impossible to comprehend how big that number is. And yet, somehow, we have managed to make the debt just another political talking point. Republicans blame Democrats. Democrats blame Republicans. And while we all argue who is to blame, the number keeps going up. While there is enough blame to go around for the debt, there is something that I think gets lost whenever we talk about the national debt. Not all debt is created equal. That may be the most important thing for us to understand when we talk about the debt. Simply saying, “it is not just the Republicans fault, Democrats added to the debt too,” is intellectually flawed because it doesn’t tell us why the debt was created. It is like looking at a credit card bill and refusing to look at what was purchased. Was the money spent on renovations for your home? To pay for an emergency operation? To keep a business from collapsing? Or was it spent buying a third vacation home? The amount of debt might be the same. But the reason for the debt is not. And the reason matters. Look at what happened after the Great Recession. Barack Obama inherited an economy that was in crisis. The Great Recession that began in 2007–2008 was triggered by the collapse of the housing market and the resulting financial crisis. When Obama took office, unemployment was rising, financial markets were collapsing, and the economy was contracting. The Congressional Budget Office reported that the enormous deficits that were added in 2009 and 2010 were the results of the collapse in revenues caused by the recession and the spending and tax policies enacted by the Obama administration to combat those problems. Did Obama add to the national debt? Absolutely. But why? Because the government was trying to keep the economy from completely crashing. Then came COVID. Donald Trump was president when the pandemic began, and his administration signed enormous emergency spending legislation to keep the economy going. Much of that spending was necessary. Businesses were shutting down. Millions of Americans were suddenly unemployed. Hospitals were overwhelmed and people were dying. The government had to respond because the American people couldn’t. And when Joe Biden became president, the country was still dealing with the economic consequences of that pandemic. Did Biden add to the debt? Of course he did. But again, the question is why? Because if he didn’t, then the economic damage caused by the pandemic would have been much worse than it was. There is a difference between emergency spending designed to prevent an economic collapse with a Trump tax cut designed to reduce the amount of money wealthy Americans have to pay and then simply say, “See? Both sides added to the debt.” That’s not an honest comparison. Now let’s look at Donald Trump. When Trump first took office in January 2017, the national debt was approximately $19.95 trillion. When he left office four years later, it was approximately $27.75 trillion. When he returned to office in January 2025, it was approximately $36.22 trillion. And now, it has passed $40 trillion. Donald Trump and his policies have added approximately $11.63 trillion to the debt during his two terms as president. Obviously, not all of that increase can be attributed to Trump’s tax cuts. COVID was responsible for a significant portion of that increase in debt during his first term. But it also doesn’t excuse the debt increase that was caused by his policies that had nothing to do with the pandemic. Trump during his first term signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. When he signed it there was no pandemic. There was no economic emergency. It was a policy choice. A choice to give more money to the very wealthy while adding more than a trillion dollars to the debt. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the law would increase federal deficits by approximately $1.9 trillion over the 2018–2028 period. And in Trump’s second term, he made it even worse. The Big Beautiful Bill that the republicans passed through reconciliation in 2025 is projected by CBO to increase deficits by trillions of dollars over the coming decade. CBO’s current estimates puts the increase at approximately $4.7 trillion. Tax cuts for the wealthy account for much of the increase, but not all of it. The reconciliation bill also included additional defense spending. And to make it even worse, Donald Trump started a war against Iran that has now stretched toward six months. A war that is costing American taxpayers billions to fight and billions more to repair the bases that Iran has destroyed. So when Donald Trump and the Republican party say that the way to reduce the debt is to cut Social Security or Medicare, I have to ask: Why? Why is the first thing that the Republican Party want to take away from Americans is two programs that Americans who worked their entire lives paid for? Why isn’t the first question: What else can we cut? And this isn’t just about Donald Trump. Trump didn’t invent this philosophy. This idea goes back decades in the Republican Party. Ronald Reagan dramatically reduced the top marginal income tax rate. The top rate was 70 percent when Reagan took office. His 1981 tax law reduced it to 50 percent, and the 1986 tax reform reduced it again to 28 percent. And those tax cuts added billions to the debt. For decades, we have been told that lowering taxes on wealthy Americans will somehow make the rest of us richer. It never has. But one thing is certain to happen every single time you cut taxes on the wealthy. When you reduce the government’s revenue without reducing the services Americans expect the government to provide, you have to make up the difference somewhere. And too often, we don’t cut anything. Instead the government borrows more money to make up for the lost tax revenue from those tax cuts. Then we tell future generations that they will have to deal with it. And here is where I disagree with the people who say the answer is simply: “Government needs to spend less.” No. That is not the answer. The government doesn’t just need to spend less, the government needs to spend better. There is a difference. I want my government to spend money. I want my government investing in new technologies. I want my government funding scientific research. I want my government investing in clean energy and new sources of power. I want my government building and repairing infrastructure. I want my government making health care more accessible and affordable for everyone. I want my government making sure children don’t go hungry. I want my government investing in education for all of our children. I want my government helping American workers compete in a changing world. Those things cost money. And I’m okay with that. Because those are investments in America. Those are investments in our children. Those are investments in our future. What I don’t want is a government whose primary concern is making sure that the people who already have hundreds of millions or billions of dollars can accumulate even more while cutting programs that help everyone else. I don’t believe that should be the purpose of government. And I certainly don’t believe that we should borrow money from future generations to make that happen. If we’re serious about lowering the national debt, then let’s have an honest conversation. Let’s look at defense spending. Let’s ask whether every new weapons system is necessary. Let’s ask whether every new military contract is necessary. Let’s ask whether the United States really needs to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on things that don’t make Americans safer. Let’s look at tax loopholes. Let’s look at corporate subsidies. Let’s look at the ways wealthy Americans can structure their finances so that they pay less in taxes than ordinary working Americans. Let’s look at capital gains. Let’s look at offshore money. Let’s look at every place where the government gives away revenue that it could use to pay for the country that we actually want. And yes, let’s look at taxes. Maybe the wealthiest Americans should pay more. Maybe corporations that make enormous profits should contribute more to the country that made those profits possible. Maybe we should stop pretending that someone making $50,000 a year and someone making $500 million a year should be treated the same when it comes to taxation. And maybe we should stop pretending that protecting Social Security and Medicare is somehow irresponsible while giving another tax break to someone who already has more money than they could spend in a lifetime is somehow responsible. This is what I mean when I say not all debt is created equal. If we borrow money to keep children out of poverty, I can understand that. If we borrow money to make sure Americans can receive medical care, I can understand that. If we borrow money to develop the next generation of technology, create jobs, rebuild our infrastructure, or make America more competitive, I can understand that. If we borrow money during an economic catastrophe to keep people from losing everything, I can understand that. But if we borrow money so that the wealthiest Americans can become even wealthier? I don’t think that makes any sense. And if we borrow money to pay for endless wars and military programs that don’t actually make Americans safer? I don’t think that makes any sense either. The question shouldn’t simply be: “How do we reduce the national debt?” The question that we should be asking is: “What do we want America to be spending money on?” I don’t want an America that spends less just for the sake of spending less. I want an America that spends its money on the things that actually make Americans’ lives better. I want a government that understands that a child who escapes poverty is an investment. A scientist who discovers something that changes the world is an investment. A new technology that creates millions of jobs is an investment. A healthy population is an investment. An educated population is an investment. A bridge that doesn’t collapse is an investment. A power grid that can handle the future is an investment. And a Social Security system that allows an elderly American to live with dignity is an investment too. Those aren’t wasteful expenditures. Those are the reasons government exists. Government should not exist to make the richest Americans richer. Government should exist to help create a country where all Americans have the opportunity to live better lives. That’s the difference. And at some point, simple math is going to force us to have this conversation whether we want to or not because America’s rising debt is not sustainable. The Congressional Budget Office projects that the federal deficit will reach approximately $1.9 trillion in fiscal year 2026 and that debt held by the public will rise to 120 percent of GDP by 2036. That’s not a Republican number. That’s not a Democratic number. It’s a math number. And it’s a number that should concern us all. So maybe it’s time we stopped arguing about which political party is responsible for the debt and started asking something much more important. What should the government be spending our money on? What are we willing to invest in? What are we willing to protect? Who are we willing to help? And perhaps most importantly: Who are we willing to ask to pay for it? I don’t believe that the answer should always be the person who has the least must pay more for tax cuts for the wealthy. I don’t believe the answer should be that we should let children grow up in poverty. I don’t believe the answer should be that we should cut Social Security and Medicare that our elderly people depend upon. I don’t believe the answer should be to take away affordable health care for families. I believe we can do better. We can raise tax revenue on the wealthy. We can close tax loopholes. We can stop treating defense spending as something that can never be questioned. We can eliminate wasteful spending. We can make smarter investments for America’s future. And we can build a government that does the things that a government is supposed to do. Because $40 trillion isn’t just a number. It’s a choice. It represents decades of choices about what we value, what we fund, what we tax, what we cut, and who benefits the most. And it’s time to make better choices that serve all Americans, not just a select few. Not for the billionaires. Not for the politicians. Not for the next election. It is time to make better choices for the Americans who are going to inherit the bill that is here. Because our government should not be asking: How can we make the rich even richer? It should be asking: How can we make America better for everyone? Thank you for sitting under the tree with me and listening to my musings. If you enjoyed this musing, please consider subscribing to my Substack, Musings Under the Tree. I write about empathy, personal growth, Being S.A.F.E., politics from time to time, and whatever else wanders through my mind while sitting under the tree. https://musingsunderthetree.substack.com/p/life-of-a-tree?r=1s6ofh [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/8/25/800089071/community/the-40-trillion-question/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/