Will Harris or Trump fix the national debt?

Both candidates have big spending plans

Illustration of Congress overshadowed by a huge ball of money
The next president will quickly have a chance to make an impact
(Image credit: Illustration by Stephen Kelly / Getty Images)

It has been two decades since America balanced its budget. Wars, tax cuts and a pandemic have all been paid for with deficit spending, using borrowed money. The next president might face a reckoning as a result.

The federal debt is "soaring" but Donald Trump and Kamala Harris "aren't talking about it," said The Wall Street Journal. America is $28 trillion in the hole — about the size of the entire economy — and that number is on track to increase by $22 trillion over the next decade. That's so much money that "interest costs alone are poised to exceed annual defense spending." But the debt gets only "sporadic attention" from the candidates, who are instead making "expensive promises" to voters. The next president will quickly have a chance to make an impact: Trump-era tax cuts expire in 2025. Letting them lapse, though, is a "path to deficit reduction" that neither party seems to want.

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Joel Mathis, The Week US

Joel Mathis is a writer with 30 years of newspaper and online journalism experience. His work also regularly appears in National Geographic and The Kansas City Star. His awards include best online commentary at the Online News Association and (twice) at the City and Regional Magazine Association.