A Respectful Question for Republicans

In three years under President Trump the nation has gone 3 trillion dollars further into debt.  The bean counters expect the debt will increase by at least another trillion in the coming year.  By my math each trillion dollars represents a debt of $6,420 per working person in the United States, so 3 trillion equals debt of $20,000 per US worker incurred since Donald Trump took office.

Question:  Who is going to pay that debt off?

Rich folks?  Maybe, but for 40 years Republicans signature policy has been tax cuts for the wealthy so that seems unlikely. 

Retired or working folk?  If we increase taxes on retired and working folk the economy will take a big hit - maybe even a recession or depression.  Regular folks consumption powers our economy, taking money out of their pockets to pay down the debt will reduce consumption almost dollar for dollar.

Our kids and grand kids?  

Any other ideas for someone to pick up the tab?


Background facts:  The National debt was 30% of GDP in 1933 when Democrats took over in the midst of the Great Depression.  Democrats increased taxes on the wealthy as the debt went up during the Depression and World War II, and maintained the high taxes after the war for nearly 40 years.  The National debt was back down to 30% of GDP in 1981 when Republicans took over and started cutting taxes.  

Between 1982 and 2016 Republicans cut taxes every time they could push tax cuts past Democrats (Democrats made modest increases when they had a chance).  During that period the debt increased by about 14 trillion dollars, a rate of about a trillion every 2.7 years.  The Trump tax cuts have more than doubled the rate of debt increase.

The total debt increase since the Reagan tax cuts adds another $80,000 per working person.  So since Ronald Reagan started cutting taxes in 1982 and after the Trump tax cuts the debt amounts to $100,000 for each working person in the United States.

Sources: In 2018, around 155.76 million people were employed in the United States.
         ww.statista.com › International › USA    
For National Debt inro link to spreadsheets at
           https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UpmM0yOxhC5sBmnQuOyxfjkTzznMF7TpTK5PJsmmI-Q/edit#gid=2094138634