President Donald Trump scolded the media back in February for not reporting that the national debt had fallen by $12 billion during his first month in office, compared with an increase of $200 billion during former President Barack Obama's first 30 days in the White House.

The numbers in Trump's tweet were accurate but meaningless, which is why they didn't garner lots of news coverage (though the president apparently learned about them by watching Fox News). The precise size of the national debt fluctuates from month to month, financial experts quickly pointed out. But the clear and unmistakable trend is that America's debt continues to climb.

It topped $20 trillion for the first time last month, according to the Treasury Department, and stood at $20.3 trillion as of Tuesday. That's more than $400 billion higher than in February, when Trump sent his self-congratulatory tweet, which Politifact.org described as "highly misleading." More important, the Republican president has shown little interest in controlling the debt since then, as it rises ever higher.

Trump's plan to overhaul the tax code is just the latest example. The president last week promised a "giant, beautiful, massive" tax cut that the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) predicts will add $2.2 trillion to the national debt over the next decade.

Even House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., long a champion for addressing the nation's out-of-control debt, is starting to hedge on whether he would support an overhaul of the tax code that runs up the annual budget deficit further. That's disappointing.

The good news is that at least a few Republicans who railed against soaring debt when a Democrat was in charge are still consistently raising concerns now.

U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said last Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" that he will not vote for any tax plan that adds to the federal deficit.

Good. The convoluted tax code is in dire need of simplification. But any changes should be revenue neutral so future generations of Americans aren't stuck with an even bigger and more burdensome pile of IOUs.

FROM AN EDITORIAL IN THE WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL