Over the last 40 years our national debt has been increased by BOTH parties, starting big time with Ronald Reagan in the 1980’s. At 20 trillion dollars our debt is not sustainable.

When I watched the first presidential debate between Clinton and Trump this past Monday night I was excited to hear Trump mention (several times) the 20 TRILLION dollars in federal debt that our country is currently saddled with.

Clinton did not mention the debt at all, not even once. She knows that the current administration increased the debt like crazy, and I suspect that Hillary will do nothing about this issue if she wins the election this fall. Chances are she’ll increase our national debt, after all, Hillary Clinton is the “status quo” candidate.

If Clinton had a plan for balancing the budget and reducing our federal debt she would have mentioned this, at least once.

Trump carries a ton of business debt, but he also looks at that debt in balance to the value of the real estate holdings in his portfolio. This was one of the things he mentioned in the debates. Just the fact that Trump is talking about our debt is a good thing, and if he gains the White House he might even do something about it.

If you had a to wager a hundred bucks on which candidate is more likely to lower our national debt would you put your crisp Ben Franklin on Trump or Clinton?

It would be great if our national debt went down, even just a little bit. It would be good for my kids, and my future grandkids.

Any action taken to reduce our national debt would increase the confidence of global investors who want to invest funds in our country.

I don’t agree with Trump on many OTHER issues, his crazy statements, hatred of women, creepy sexual admiration of his own daughter and his clear bias against minorities, but at the end of the day none of these things will collapse the macro-economy of the United States.

But what about 25 or 30 trillion dollars in national debt by 2025?

That’s what will happen if we maintain the current holding pattern.

Something, or someone, has to change the course. If not we will all have to live through another recession that makes 2008 look like nothing.

Just my 2 cents.

Benjamin T. Alexander

September 2016