The newly adopted 2024 Democratic Party platform states that former President Donald Trump's policies “added more to the national debt than any other presidential term.”

It's true that the federal deficit ballooned to a staggering $2 trillion in 2020. In fact, Republicans don't take the national debt as seriously as they once did, and this year's party platform eliminated any mention of it. But most importantly, things would be much worse with Kamala Harris as president. (Related: Trump sharply criticized voters' top concerns during Republican National Convention speech, but Harris barely mentioned them.)

Consider what happened with the 2020 pandemic. The virus, state mandates, and public fear brought the economy to a screeching halt. The result was tax revenue drying up. And there was also substantial COVID-19 emergency spending (supported by Harris). The undeniable truth is that stifling the economy while increasing spending is a textbook recipe for a debt crisis.

Whether government intervention was necessary in 2020 or not, the responsibility for these actions ultimately lies with former President Donald Trump. But the talking point of this criticism in the Democratic platform is that VP Harris explicitly states that Trump did not do enough (because he was “too obsessed with the stock market”). If Harris had been president, the spending and shutdowns would have been much more. The Democratic platform would be more honest: “Harris' policies would have further increased the national debt.”

The pandemic isn't the only problem. Harris' record shows she has supported big government spending: Medicare for All, expanding Social Security, a $10 trillion climate change initiative, a welfare system that gives Americans a paycheck even if they don't work, and big homebuyers' tax credits, just to name a few. Harris also wants regulations that shut down the economy with policies ripped from Communist Russia, like an electric vehicle mandate, a fracking ban, and price controls.

The United States is on a dangerous path. It took the United States nearly 200 years to accumulate $2 trillion in debt, and now we are piling on that amount every year. As of this summer, the U.S. federal debt exceeded $35 trillion, more than twice that of any other country (including the entire 27-member European Union). The United States is large, and some states boast economies larger than the entire developed world, but even taking into account the size of their economies, things are bad. Only Japan, Greece, Venezuela, and Italy are worse off than the United States. Debt to GDP Ratio More than the US (Related article: US national debt reaches $35 trillion for the first time in history)

2025 will be an extremely volatile year as we face what some experts are calling the “Debt Olympics.” Elected officials will have to navigate numerous hurdles next year, including the looming debt ceiling, reconciliation, looming tax increases, expiring budget caps, and funding the government.

The debt crisis is driven in large part by so-called “entitlement” programs like Social Security and Medicare, which make up two-thirds of the federal budget. Over the next decade, the trust funds that support them will collapse. “Social Security and Medicare face a combined cash shortfall of $124 trillion over the next 30 years,” the report states. 1 report.

“It's disappointing that Trump has promised not to reform our government and pull it out of bankruptcy so that future generations of Americans can depend on it, but it's incredibly disconcerting that Harris is so keen to overburden our government. Rather than prepare for the necessary work of budgeting and austerity, Harris has decided to step on the gas, hit the hurdles, and push the country over a cliff.”

US Vice President and 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during the second day of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) at the Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on August 20, 2024. (Photo: Mahakah Eslami/Middle East Images/Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo: Mahakah Eslami/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)

Unfortunately, there are many on the left who reject the debt and say we should just keep printing more and more money. But the interest on the debt alone has reached crisis levels, exceeding this year's defense budget. If the debt really does quintuple over the next few decades because of defaults on benefits, interest on the debt could skyrocket even further as interest rates rise to find buyers for U.S. Treasury bonds. (Related article: Report says we currently spend more on debt interest than on defense)

Sooner or later, someone will grow up and have to start paying off debt and dealing with spending problems, and Harris' plan is the equivalent of a teenager getting their first credit card and promising their friends, “I'll pay it,” when in reality, the burden will fall on our children and grandchildren.

It would be morally irresponsible to impose a debt crisis on our children and future generations. And at some point, the crisis will become impossible to manage because investors will refuse to buy the debt of a fiscally irresponsible country. Unfortunately, when that time comes, we will be so deeply in debt that it will be unclear how we will ever get back on our feet again.

How much better would it be for our leaders to address the problems when the opportunity arises in 2025? Instead, we must choose between candidates who promise to do nothing about the problems and candidates who promise to make them worse. No president like Calvin Coolidge, the last president to leave office with less debt than he took office, is anywhere to be found.

John Shelton is policy director at Advancing American Freedom.

The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.

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