If the Two VP Candidates Ignore the $19 Trillion National Debt, Will It Cease to Exist?

During Tuesday’s debate, Elaine Quijano asked vice presidential nominees Tim Kaine and Mike Pence:

“According to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, neither of your economic plans will reduce the growing $19 trillion gross national debt. In fact, your plans would add even more to it. Both of you were governors who balanced state budgets. Are you concerned that adding more to the debt could be disastrous for the country?”

Pence had to evade. He couldn’t address the question, because it is true: According to CRFB projections, Donald Trump’s economic plan would increase the category of publicly held debt from $14 trillion to $35.2 trillion by 2026 — well over doubling it.

So Pence merely said the fact that Hillary Clinton was part of an administration which doubled the national debt was “atrocious,” and said he was “very proud” that he is from a “state that works,” praising his efforts in Indiana for cutting taxes, leaving a surplus, and devoting resources to education and infrastructure.

Basically, he didn’t answer the question. Because the Republican vice presidential candidate can’t.

Kaine’s answer was equally inane. Like his running mate, he tried to make a canned line work: “Do you want a ‘you’re hired’ president in Hillary Clinton, or do you want a ‘you’re fired’ president in Donald Trump?” He then proceeded to argue that by making college tuition free and raising the minimum wage, Hillary Clinton is the right choice for the economy.

Much like their cohorts, Pence and Kaine avoided talking about entitlement spending, which should have been part of a candid answer to Quijano’s debt question. Our entitlement programs are the primary debt-driver and our unfunded liabilities are in the trillions.

Let’s put this into perspective: As The Daily Signal reported, mandatory spending on Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and other federal health care programs, in addition to interest on already-existing federal debt, will “consume all federal tax revenues by 2033.”

So unless mandatory spending is cut and serious reforms are made to our entitlement crisis, all of our federal tax payments will be swallowed up by Big Government programs in 17 years. There will be nothing left for defense. Nothing left for national security. Nothing left for anything other than New Deal and Great Society welfare programs. Oh, and Obamacare, which will have morphed into a full-fledged single-payer system by then.

Instead of trading insults, it would be great to see our presidential tickets acknowledge the debt crisis and debate how to tackle it. Republicans should easily win on this issue; Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Obamacare are all Democrat dealings. Traditional Republican plans aim to privatize Social Security and rein in Medicaid and Medicare. But instead of making a credible case on how all of this federal spending should be addressed, Donald Trump and Mike Pence avoid talking about entitlements and have nothing but vague platitudes about the debt.

The fact of the matter is, whether our presidential tickets want to acknowledge our out-of-control entitlement spending or not, eventually the programs will be insolvent. Then what? (For more from the author of “If the Two VP Candidates Ignore the $19 Trillion National Debt, Will It Cease to Exist?” please click HERE)

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