Here’s a sentence for you. When CNN talked to voters in swing states they discovered that white people living in gated communities “plan to vote for Trump despite the fact that his plans would massively increase the debt.” The $19 trillion US debt is an enormous figure, nearly twice what it was before the government started its huge spending campaign to revivify the economy after the economic collapse of 2008. The national debt isn’t a high priority for most voters, whose own credit card debt usually looms much larger than some fantastic number that comes before a bizarre word like “trillion.”
But among those who are concerned about the debt, there seems to be a disconnect encapsulated by that sentence above. The independent, nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has looked at the plans of both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Both candidates’ proposals would raise the debt further. But the difference really is massive, according to the CRFB. They’ve concluded that Clinton’s plan would add $200 billion to the debt over a decade. Trump’s plan would add $5.3 trillion.
