Just a couple weeks ago, the Congressional Budget Office released data showing that the country's long-term fiscal situation is dire. In large part due to unexpected spending increases owing to the crisis brought on by the novel coronavirus, the United States’s debt is now on track to exceed its gross domestic product (GDP) by next year — essentially meaning that we will owe more than we produce in a single year. Just thirty years from now, the country’s debt is projected to be nearly double its GDP.
By any metric, that’s a bad fiscal situation to be in and lawmakers ought to be working to fix it. But in the first presidential debate, the country’s debt barely received a passing mention. Though the debate was notably lacking in substance more generally, one would still think the topic of how best to lift the country out of this fiscal hole would at the very least merit a significant discussion from the presidential candidates.
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