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Steve Rattner maps out the irresponsible Republican path to uncontrollable deficits and debt. [1]
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Date: 2025-06-11
Steve Rattner uses charts to explain the uncontrollable US debt. My narrative assigns the blame to Republican policies, a fact the mainstream media is scared to address.
Steve Rattner: Budget deficit & debt are a Republican thing
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Summary
The video argues that America’s staggering $36-trillion-plus national debt is the predictable result of deliberate policy choices: massive tax giveaways to the wealthy, catastrophic wars of choice, and failed pandemic leadership, not social investments. It contends that when the government prioritizes plutocrats and militarism over working people, red ink and preventable suffering follow.
President Clinton handed off a rare budget surplus, but Bush’s 2001-03 tax cuts quickly reversed course and began the debt spiral.
Two decades of post-9/11 wars—especially Iraq—have already cost roughly $2.9 trillion, with veterans’ care still mounting.
The Bush and Trump tax cut packages together removed well over $3 trillion in revenue, overwhelmingly benefiting the wealthiest households and corporations.
Trump’s chaotic pandemic response made a $2.2 trillion relief bill unavoidable and led to hundreds of thousands of avoidable deaths, deepening both the human and fiscal toll.
Today, the debt equals more than 100 percent of GDP, and interest payments threaten to crowd out vital public investments unless lawmakers raise revenue from those who can best afford it.
A progressive reading views the debt crisis not as an inevitable mathematical problem, but as a moral indictment of trickle-down economics and militarized priorities. Restoring fiscal health, therefore, demands taxing extreme wealth, trimming the Pentagon’s excess, and investing in people-first programs that expand shared prosperity.
The complete article is here on my Substack.
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