Oval Office hopefuls go for broke
Presidential candidates have not had to take a stance on important issues, like national debt
What makes this so stomach-churning is that it is hard to imagine two less likeable candidates than Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. What makes this dangerous is that it creates a vacuum of public opinion on genuinely important issues such a federal debt, education funding and healthcare that can be exploited by whichever candidate is elected to power. In fairness, Clinton has made more of an effort than Trump to bring issues such as rising student debt and access to affordable healthcare into the spotlight. One of the biggest issues to escape public scrutiny is how either of the candidates plans to tackle the long-term debt problem. Although there is no immediate debt crisis — the federal debt limit was suspended in 2015 and will be reinstated only in March 2017 — demographic trends and growing demands on the fiscus mean debt is projected to continue growing whichever candidate is elected to the White House. Total federal government debt is just shy of $20-trillion and it may very...
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