Politicians love to lie through their teeth. It’s obvious to anyone with eyes.
And now Capitol Hill is reeling after their hypocrisy was completely exposed.
The national debt just blew past $40 trillion, and right on cue, the very lawmakers who voted to get us there are lining up on X to wring their hands about it. It would almost be funny if it weren’t such a brazen insult to the American taxpayers footing the bill for their fiscal recklessness.
Both parties share plenty of blame here, and both parties spent Thursday pretending otherwise. Democrats and Republicans alike voted for legislation that dumped trillions onto the national credit card, including the $3.4 trillion One Big, Beautiful Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act, and now they want credit for noticing the bill came due.
Democratic Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly wasted no time trying to pin the entire mess on President Trump, conveniently ignoring his own vote for the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan and the roughly $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act under Biden. “The President said he’d pay off the debt in his first term. Well we all knew that was a lie. Instead he ran it up to $40 trillion while he and his family made billions,” Kelly posted. Selective memory is apparently a job requirement in the Senate.
Republicans weren’t exactly covering themselves in glory either. Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley took to X to blame “socialist policies” for the debt crisis while somehow forgetting his own vote for the massive OBBB spending package. “U.S debt hit $40T,” Grassley wrote. “It’s a wake up call [for] America Voters [to have] 40 trillion reasons [to] reject unaffordable socialist policies. American prosperity REQUIRES fiscal discipline.” Fiscal discipline apparently doesn’t extend to actually voting against trillion-dollar spending bills.
Florida Sen. Rick Scott, who also voted for the OBBB, called on Congress to “get spending under control” by balancing the budget. “Our national debt just hit 40 TRILLION DOLLARS! This is bad. Congress needs to get spending under control and BALANCE THE BUDGET. Americans deserve better,” Scott posted. He’s not wrong that Americans deserve better — starting with lawmakers who vote their principles instead of their party’s leadership.
Utah Sen. John Curtis, another OBBB supporter, struck a more sober tone, warning that reckless spending “unfairly leaves our children and grandchildren to foot the bill” while making the economy dangerously fragile. “The more we add to our debt, the greater the threat of disaster in the event of an economic shock. We should all be alarmed. Congress needs to rally behind solutions to get our fiscal house in order,” Curtis said, pointing to the Fiscal Commission Act as a starting point. To his credit, at least Curtis is pushing an actual solution rather than just posting outrage.
Florida Rep. Randy Fine sounded the alarm too, declaring, “We cannot tax our way out of this, we cannot keep borrowing our way out of this. We have to cut spending and get our fiscal house in order before it is too late.” Strong words from a congressman who also voted for a $95 billion reconciliation package in July that included zero spending offsets.
Not everyone in the GOP caved to the pressure, though, and credit is due where it’s earned. Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie and Ohio Rep. Warren Davidson voted against that reconciliation package specifically over debt concerns. Massie didn’t hold back at the time, warning, “In an hour Congress will vote to hijack the budget reconciliation process, a tool for balancing the budget, and use it for a slush fund for the Iran War, and in the process add $130 billion to our debt.” That package ended up funneling $10 billion toward the SAVE America Act, $72 billion for Iran war-related military and intelligence spending, and $12 billion for struggling farmers — worthy causes perhaps, but not exactly the fiscal restraint Republicans campaign on.
Massie saved his sharpest words for his own colleagues suddenly discovering fiscal responsibility. “If you voted for the Big Beautiful Bill, please don’t get on here and express righteous indignation that the debt is now $40 trillion. Anyone with a room temperature IQ knew that cutting taxes and increasing spending was going to balloon the deficit,” he wrote. It’s hard to argue with that logic, and it’s exactly the kind of blunt honesty that’s made Massie a thorn in the side of leadership in both parties.
Massie wasn’t alone in opposing the OBBB back in July 2025 — Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick joined him in the House, while Sens. Rand Paul, Thom Tillis and Susan Collins opposed it in the Senate. Small numbers, but at least they’re on record.
Democratic Vermont Sen. Peter Welch, who himself voted for the $370 billion Inflation Reduction Act, tried to strike a more bipartisan tone, acknowledging that “presidents of both parties have added to the debt” and calling for shared responsibility going forward. It’s a nicer sentiment than most of his colleagues managed, even if it conveniently glosses over his own voting record.
This isn’t a new phenomenon, of course. Republicans passed the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, projected to add up to $1.9 trillion to the debt, and a bipartisan majority backed the Bipartisan Budget Acts of 2018 and 2019 that raised spending caps and suspended the debt limit outright. Both parties have had their turn at the spending trough, and both parties keep coming back for seconds.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has already signaled the debt ceiling will need to be raised again in early 2027, and he’s told the DCNF he’d “love” to see spending cuts attached when that fight comes around. Given Congress’s track record, grassroots conservatives shouldn’t hold their breath. The pattern is depressingly consistent: vote for the spending, pocket the political benefits back home, then post outrage on social media once the bill comes due, hoping voters won’t remember who actually cast the votes that got us here.
