monitoring Trump and relevant contemporary events

If you're tired of all the doom & gloom from the Resistance.

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Not really or they wouldn't be going into default.

They're in default precisely because they can't meet their obligation to pay it back. They aren't receiving grants. The loans are issued with the understanding that they will be paid back with interest. States and municipalities can't run trillion dollar debts into the future the way the federal government can.

If someone tells me that a particular dog is actually a cat and then a year later tells me that the cat is acually a dog I don't think that asking for clarification is at all unexpected. So I asked you, in good faith, what might have happened to cause the change. If you don't know, and apparently you don't, just say so.

Orders are already coming in for hats for the January marchers Knitters everywhere are smiling.

Trump meets Ukraine's president, U.S. adds to Russia sanctions

- President Donald Trump met with Ukraine’s president on Tuesday and expressed support for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine but said nothing about Russia’s role, while the U.S. government added to sanctions over Moscow’s actions.

The sanctions target Ukrainian and Russian officials and companies that U.S. authorities accuse of helping Russia tighten its grip on the Crimean peninsula, a part of Ukraine annexed by Russia in 2014 in a move Western leaders denounced as illegal.

Trump sat down in the Oval Office with Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko for talks...Poroshenko called Trump “one of the most reliable supporters” and “strategic partners” for Ukraine."

The "resistance" Democrats said nothing about the doubling of our national debt that occurred under Obama and their governance.

The subject usually involves a great deal of hypocrisy on the part of politicians.

If you listen and watch conservative media - you'll see that the latest talking point is that "Obama's doubled the national debt during this presidency" They repeat it over and over again. It renders liberals speechless. Here's the proper response:

For starters, it's not true. The day Obama took office the debt was 10.626 trillion. It's now at 18.150 trillion. And while he has added 70.2% - it's not double. And it gets better. How much money has the federal gov't spent since he became president on ALL expenses related to the illegal and unfortunate decision to invade Iraq. I don't know the answer to this - but I would guess it's in the 1.5 - 2 trillion range. Subtract that from the 18.150 and you have one of the best stewardship's of the budget since Jimmy Carter.

Here's the best argument. When a conservative brings up the doubling of the debt - ask them if by doubling the debt would that automatically make them a terrible president. They'll say it does. And they'll say it with passion because they think that Obama is the only modern president to double the debt (even though this is complete lie). Then hit them with this. The day Ronald Reagan was sworn in - the national debt was 934 billion. The day he left office the debt was 2. 697 trillion. Almost TRIPLE. Bush 41 added over 80% and Bush 43 added 110%.

And speaking of Reagan - point out that when you blow up the federal budget by dramatically increasing defense spending and dramatically lowering taxes to the rich - you get the largest increase in deficit spending in the past 70 years. Does this sound familiar? Every republican now running for president wants to do the same.

I'm having a hard time understanding your point.

The story about the "Ukraine Amendment" is from 2016, of course.

So what caused Trump to change his mind? He was pretty adamant that there was no Russian threat to Ukraine during the campaign .

Obama Won’t Arm Ukraine Because He Led the Disarming of Ukraine

The president has resisted not only causing real pain to Russia’s economy but providing the Ukrainian military with the weapons it needs to defend its sovereign territory and defeat Putin’s thugs.

As a U.S. senator, Barack Obama won $48 million in federal funding to help Ukraine destroy thousands of tons of guns and ammunition – weapons which are now unavailable to the Ukrainian army as it faces down Russian President Vladimir Putin. Just seven months after his swearing-in, Obama traveled to Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine . [He] met in Kiev with President Victor Yushchenko, making the case that an existing Cooperative Threat Reduction Program covering the destruction of nuclear weapons should be expanded to include artillery, small arms, anti-aircraft weapons, and conventional ammunition of all kinds.

A press release from then-Senator Lugar’s office included then-Senator Obama’s puerile proclamation that eliminating Ukraine’s stocks of conventional weapons would ensure “the safety of the Ukrainian people and people around the world, by keeping them out of conflicts around the world.” Rearming Ukraine now would underscore how wrong he was. That political embarrassment is a big reason why he refuses to do what needs to be done.

President Donald Trump met with Ukraine’s president on Tuesday and expressed support for a peaceful resolution to the conflict in eastern Ukraine but said nothing about Russia’s role

Donald J. Trump on Sunday offered a muddled explanation of his views about the 2014 annexation of Crimea by Russia and its continued efforts to undermine Ukraine’s control of other parts of the country, and he amplified his earlier suggestion that, if elected president, he might recognize Russia’s claim and end sanctions against it.

If Trump didn't think Russia was a threat, maybe it was because he actually believed Obama, eh?

In August 2005, just seven months after his swearing-in, Obama traveled to Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine with then-Indiana Republican Senator Dick Lugar, touring a conventional weapons site. The two met in Kiev with President Victor Yushchenko, making the case that an existing Cooperative Threat Reduction Program covering the destruction of nuclear weapons should be expanded to include artillery, small arms, anti-aircraft weapons, and conventional ammunition of all kinds.

The vast majority of our real public debt involves entitlement spending programs enacted by Democrats.

A very strong economic case can be made for the timeliness of reducing the built in disincentives in our tax system for domestic production of trade goods.

It wasn't ignored. Nor was it "doubled". But I agree with your statement here:

National debt — the numbers

According to figures published by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Fiscal Services on the TreasuryDirect web site, the national debt was $19.84 trillion on 27 July 2017 (not 30 July, as stated by Truth Division. On 20 January, it was $19.95 trillion.

The debt grew considerably under Bush II

and monumentally under Reagan due to the failure of his tax cuts to stimulate the economy.