▪️This is a common, but flawed rationalization. Of course raising the debt ceiling increases federal debt, that’s its entire purpose! If it wasn’t increased the federal debt couldn’t be raised and the government would be confined within current tax revenue.
▪️Raising it doesn’t necessitate increasing spending, but in practice it does. No one ever says, “we’re going to raise the debt ceiling one more time to pay the bills, but that’s it! Then we’ll live within our means and cut spending.” They just trot out the same line every time the limit is reached.
▪️The fact that they admit the government would default if the limit isn’t raised is an admission that spending will never be cut. They are saying if they are faced with default or cutting spending, they will choose default. Eventually, holders of US Treasuries will take note of that.
It’s bizarre to see them seesaw back and forth that Trump is totally clueless and aloof, just golfing all day, then all of a sudden he’s a dangerous king/dictator who’s diligently plotting to seize absolute power.
▪️This one is frustrating because, while it’s nice to see the vigor and speed that DOGE is acting with, they’re also sloppy with some of their findings. This is not some bombshell, millions of dead people’s SS numbers aren’t being paid out to fraudsters.
▪️This problem has been known for some time, you can read an inspector general’s report from 2015 about millions of names on the SS “numident” not being correctly annotated for deaths, even though they were older than 112 (the oldest known American at the time).
https://oig-files.ssa.gov/audits/full/A-06-14-34030_0.pdf
▪️There are innocent explanations for some of these. Expatriates that died outside the country, for example. Or immigrants given temporary work permit who returned to their country, people issued new numbers for various reasons, etc. However, most are simply due to the govt not diligently keeping track of deaths.
▪️It’s embarrassing that the govt has millions of numbers on the numident that are ...
