The Great Unmentionable
At the end of a bitter presidential campaign, there’s little discussion by either candidate of perhaps the gravest threat to our national security and continued prosperity. The nation carries a crushing debt burden of more than 20 trillion dollars, and current trends would only enlarge that debt over the next decade.
So why won’t Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton talk about it? Because they’ve both made proposals that would make the deficit worse, not better.
According to the non-partisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, if either candidate’s budgetary and tax proposals were enacted in full, the debt would grow between 200 billion and 5 trillion more than current projections over the next ten years.
If either candidate offered a more responsible approach at the end of the campaign, rather than focusing on scandals about sexual conduct involving Bill Clinton and Mr. Trump, it might tilt the electorate toward the candidate talking constructively about the looming budget crisis.