BALLOONING

Intel Director Dan Coats: National Debt Poses ‘Dire’ National-Security Threat

As Trump approves a budget lifting spending caps and a tax bill costing $1.5 trillion.

Dan Coats, the director of national intelligence, warned Tuesday that the national debt is “unsustainable” and poses “a dire threat to our economic and national security.” Coats’ warning comes in juxtaposition to President Trump recently signing into law a bipartisan budget deal lifting spending caps by $300 billion, in addition to a tax cut costing an estimated $1.5 trillion. Republicans have argued that economic growth will make up for lost federal funds as a result of the changes to the tax code, which are mostly geared toward corporations and the wealthy. The national debt currently stands at $20.6 trillion and counting. In his testimony before the Senate intelligence committee, Coats also decried the “fractious” nature of the political discourse in the United States.