It wasn’t that long ago that candidates vying for the White House tried to win voters over with their plans to reduce the budget deficit, or, better yet, leave the country with no deficit at all.
But now, as the dangers of a widening deficit and mounting debt grow, former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris are making little effort to address it. Quite the opposite: Both their economic policy agendas, if enacted, would add to the ever-growing deficit, several nonpartisan groups project.
That’s a major problem, though, and Americans cannot afford to have a president who takes the issue lightly, with everything from your ability to afford buying a home to the government’s ability to deal with emergencies like Covid on the line.
A budget deficit occurs when a country’s spending exceeds what it collects in revenue, primarily through taxes. The government makes up the difference by borrowing money through sales of securities like Treasury bonds and notes. The deficit is expected to widen under the status quo and could get even worse under proposals by both Harris and Trump, if enacted.
Already, the US is knee-deep in debt. At $28 trillion, publicly held federal debt is worth almost as much as the entire US economy.
Even Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who seldom weighs in on what elected officials should do, is concerned.
“It’s probably time, or past time, to get back to an adult conversation among elected officials about getting the federal government back on a sustainable fiscal path,” Powell said in a “60 Minutes” interview earlier this year.
During the Trump-Harris presidential debate earlier this month, the budget deficit was mentioned just twice, when Harris jabbed Trump for his proposals, which are expected to add considerably more to the deficit than hers. However, neither she nor Trump spoke about trying to reduce the deficit, and the moderators of the debate didn’t ask about it.
No matter who wins the presidential election, there will be a “mandate to make things worse unless something changes,” said Maya MacGuineas, president of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The debt contributions both candidates’ plans carry would undermine “every part of their agendas about helping American families,” she said.
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