Thanks to the historic tax reform passed by congressional Republicans at the end of last year, the economy is booming. Even better, the job market is exploding, and fewer workers are receiving unemployment benefits than at any point during the last 44 years.

Rep. Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) retirement announcement marks another instance of a growing trend. More and more Republican lawmakers are retiring after this legislative session — some to seek higher office at the federal and state level, some to private-sector ventures, and some simply out of a desire to be at home and with their families.

U.S. federal debt added up to $908 billion in 1980, but today, nearly 40 years later, the number comes in around $20 trillion. That the amount owed by U.S. taxpayers has soared over twenty-fold would, in a static world, correlate with a huge increase in borrowing costs for the U.S. Treasury.