While debt is rising
www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-reason-the-debt-is-so-high-the-us-is-at-war--with-itself/2019/07/01/4b337708-9c0c-11e9-9ed4-c9089972ad5a_story.html
At the moment, however, Republicans seem especially blameworthy; following President Trump’s lead, they used their 2017-2018 majority in Congress to cut taxes by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, while boosting defense spending and abandoning their supposed interest in entitlement reform.
Republicans claimed, as usual, that tax cuts would produce enough new economic growth to offset increased debt. The CBO says that hasn’t happened and probably won’t, but the combination of higher spending and lower taxes over the past year has goosed the economy, so Americans aren’t inclined to worry about deficits. A January Pew Research Center survey found that 48 percent of Americans said reducing the federal deficit should be a top policy priority, down from 72 percent in 2013, at the start of President Barack Obama’s second term. The decline was slightly greater among Republicans.
A less upbeat interpretation, however, is that foreign financing is enabling the United States to indulge its penchant for dysfunctional political warfare, leaving the federal government committed to old, suboptimal policies and, over time, undermining the stability and rule of law that make this country a financial haven in the first place.
And susceptible to foreign pressure by the countries buying debt? Yes, including China - also see opening to NK.