Flash! National debt drops a tad, while the president of the United States takes credit for it!
Hold on for just a New York minute, shall we?
Donald J. Trump shouldn’t be taking credit for a slight dip in the national debt, any more than Barack Obama should have taken the hickey for it when it blipped up in the first month of his administration.
However, do not expect that to inhibit the new president from taking credit on such matters.
The president has shown this habit of taking credit for positive things but then passing off negative elements as if he’s some sort of innocent bystander.
The New York Times reported: “The federal debt is determined by the government’s decisions about taxing and spending, and by the strength of the American economy. The debt was increasing rapidly in early 2009 because the economy was in free fall, and because of policy decisions made during the administration of President George W. Bush.
“The debt is rising more slowly now because economic growth has strengthened and because of policy decisions made during Mr. Obama’s administration. But the debt is on a clear upward trend. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated in January that the debt would increase by $559 billion in the current fiscal year, ending in September.”
Trump has been in office for a whole month. He’s got 47 more of them to go. The president, though, is so darn quick with his Twitter trigger finger that he cannot help but assume this minor downtick in the debt is all his doing.
We’d better get used to this kind of thing.
Oh, the fact-checkers will be busy.
