The national debt math we all want to ignore

MINOT, N.D. — In Washington, D.C., there is yet another fight over raising the debt ceiling.

If the federal government isn’t authorized by Congress to accumulate more debt — we’re currently at over $28.4 trillion, according to the Treasury Department, or an alarming $8 trillion more than the same date during Donald Trump’s first year in office — the government will have to shut down.

And so the politicians debate raising the debt ceiling. Democrats want it to go up to clear room for their obnoxiously alliterated, multi-trillion-dollar Build Back Better Act.

Republicans, on the other hand, after sitting on their hands while the national debt exploded under Trump’s leadership, have decided to play at being rigorous fiscal conservatives again.

It’s a pathetic bit of theater that ignores the real question looming over policy morass: Why do we refuse to pay for the government we vote for? Or cut government down to something we’re willing to pay for?

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