They are not really separate though but that is what Trump wants you to believe.
There is a reason the GOP Potus prior and now Trump (Magat Potus) will always run massive debt and deficits.  ALWAYS!
They went from a party, pre Nixon, who were genuine debt hawks to becoming the party who puts on far more debt then Democrats EACH AND EVERY TIME THEY GET POWER NO MATTER THE ECONOMY STATUS.
The reason for that is that they fear if they pay down debt and hand over a good economy to the Dem's they will then be able to expand the social safety net with public support and the GOP screaming 'but debt' will not rally the voters.   So instead they WANT to always hand to Dem Potus the treasury that was just burdened with massive new debt (by them) so they can scream, 'WE ARE DROWNING IN DEBT AND CANNOT AFFORD YOUR PROGRAMS', and the voters look at the debt and think 'ya'.
Again the US is unique in the 1st world in this regard and get away with it as people like you say 'oh that is another topic... i do not want to consider that and instead lets talk about the affordability of these social programs instead'.