It is primarily the Republicans who have been responsible for the national debt, by massive tax cuts, mostly on corporations and the wealthy, under Reagan, GW Bush, and Trump. Of course, the Democrats were partly complicit based on their failure to re-raise taxes to any significant extent when they regained control of the government at various times since the 1990s (including most recently 2021-2023). Nonetheless, it is the Republicans who bear the bulk of the responsibility for the massive, $31 Trillion national debt, and their goal, it appears, has always been to "starve the beast," i.e. deprive the government of revenue so that popular social programs will eventually have to be cut. This is straight out of the far-right, libertarian playbook.All of that being said, we shouldn't downplay the dire situation that the nation is in debt-wise. At $31 Trillion, the debt is at approximately 100% of GDP, the highest level since the end of WWII. If things continue as they are, it's going to be far higher than this in the next decade or two, which I suspect will cause major problems.So yes, it's mostly the Republicans who are to blame for the massive national debt, but something still needs to be done about it. It should be addressed by raising top marginal rates on the wealthy and corporations, but I doubt that either party is capable of doing that.

It is primarily the Republicans who have been responsible for the national debt, by massive tax cuts, mostly on corporations and the wealthy, under Reagan, GW Bush, and Trump. Of course, the Democrats were partly complicit based on their failure to re-raise taxes to any significant extent when they regained control of the government at various times since the 1990s (including most recently 2021-2023). Nonetheless, it is the Republicans who bear the bulk of the responsibility for the massive, $31 Trillion national debt, and their goal, it appears, has always been to "starve the beast," i.e. deprive the government of revenue so that popular social programs will eventually have to be cut. This is straight out of the far-right, libertarian playbook.All of that being said, we shouldn't downplay the dire situation that the nation is in debt-wise. At $31 Trillion, the debt is at approximately 100% of GDP, the highest level since the end of WWII. If things continue as they are, it's going to be far higher than this in the next decade or two, which I suspect will cause major problems.So yes, it's mostly the Republicans who are to blame for the massive national debt, but something still needs to be done about it. It should be addressed by raising top marginal rates on the wealthy and corporations, but I doubt that either party is capable of doing that.

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