Accusing President Donald Trump and Republican lawmakers of subverting democracy has become the crux of Democrats' messaging. Never mind that most of the administration's actions over the past two years have been to undo Biden's overreach.

Despite a lot of talk about fiscal responsibility, lawmakers in Washington are continuing to run up the tab on America's already maxed-out credit card.

The U.S. national debt crossed another grim milestone this month, surpassing $40 trillion for the first time ever. That's more than double the amount owed in 2017 and is expected grow to $64 trillion within the next decade.

Even if one were to accept the law's estimated $250 billion of deficit reductions — a number largely reliant on deferred spending cuts and aspirational forecasts, like the faux Medicare savings — the savings were offset, many times over, by Democrats' uncontrollable penchant to spend taxpayers' money.

The actions send a clear message: States that refuse to get serious about fraud and abuse will quickly see the spigot of federal funding shut off. It's about time. The Government Accountability Office estimates that taxpayers lose as much as $521 billion to fraud every year. The federal government made at least $186 billion of improper payments last year, over half of which occurred in health care programs.

While concerns about AI automation have dominated headlines and sucked the oxygen out of the room, a bigger, more immediate threat to Americans' job prospects and wages continues to go virtually ignored: That is the crowding-out effect of the rising federal debt on private investment.