thank you and good evening the sponsor has been identified but unlike most television programs the performer hasn't been provided with a script as a matter of fact I have been permitted to choose my own words and discuss my own ideas regarding the choice that we face in the next few weeks I have spent most of my life as a Democrat I recently have seen fit to follow another course I believe that the issues confronting us cross party lines now one side in this campaign has been telling us that the issues of this election are the maintenance of peace and prosperity the line has been used we've never had it so good but I have an uncomfortable feeling that this Prosperity isn't something on which we can base our hopes for the Future No nation in history has ever survived a tax burden that reached a third of its national income today 37 cents out of every dollar earned in this country is the tax collector share and yet our government continues to spend $17 million a day more than the government takes in we haven't balanced our budget 28 out of the last 34 years we've raised our debt limit three times in the last 12 months and now our national debt is one and a half times bigger than all the combined debts of all the nations of the world Ronald Reagan called it the speech today it's known as a time for choosing and it was a key turning point in Ronald Reagan's political career 60 years ago next month October 27th 1964 Republican Party party officials in California asked Ronald Reagan to film a speech on behalf of presidential candidate Barry Goldwater it was electrifying and one minute into the speech Ronald Reagan talked about as you heard the national debt in 1964 the US national debt was $312 billion when adjusted for inflation that is equivalent to a current national debt of $2.5 trillion in this episode of cp's podcast the weekly we look back at how the nation debt has been discussed on the presidential campaign trail with the next presidential debate coming up on September 10th Donald Trump versus kamla Harris for the first time we look specifically at how if at all the national debt has been talked about in presidential debates we started with Ronald Reagan in 1964 let's fast forward 20 years to Ronald Reagan debating Walter Mondale during the 1984 presidential campaign in 1984 the national debt was around a trillion that's about3 trillion in 2024 here's a question to now President Ronald Reagan from Diane Sawyer and to keep it even what remaining question would you most like to see your opponent forced to answer why the deficits are so much of a problem for him now but that in 1976 when the deficit was $52 billion uh and everyone was panicking about that he said no that he thought it ought to be be bigger because a bigger deficit would stimulate the economy and would uh help do away with unemployment in 1979 he made similar statements uh the same effect that um that the um uh deficits uh there was nothing wrong with having deficits remember there was a trillion dollars in debt before we got here that's got to be paid by our children and grandchildren too if we don't do it and uh I'm hoping we can start some payments on it before we get through here that's why I want another four years and from the same debate here's Walter mandale his closing statement are we better off when we load our children with this fantastic debt would fathers and mothers feel proud of themselves if they loaded their children with debts like this nation is now over a trillion dollars on the shoulders of our children 1988 the national debt is $2.6 trillion that $5.3 trillion today debating Vice President George H W bush here's Democrat Michael dakus what he's proposing after over a trillion dollars in new debt which has been added to the federal debt in the course of the past eight years an IOU that our children and grandchildren will be paying for years is a tax cut for the wealthiest 1% of the people in this country an average of about $30,000 that we're going to give to people making $200,000 a year well that's more than the the average teacher makes we've had enough of that ladies and gentlemen we've run up more debt in the last 8 years than under all of the presidents from George Washington Jimmy Carter combined 1992 the US federal debt was $4 trillion 8.96 trillion do today three debates among three candidates Republican President George Bush Democrat Bill Clinton and independent Ross perau Ross perau talked extensively about the national debt on the campaign Trail and during the debates but I just find it fascinating that while we sit here tonight we will go into debt an additional 50 billion 50 million do in an hour and a half now it's not the Republicans fault of course and it's not the democrat's fault and what I'm looking for is who did it now they are the two folks involved so maybe you put them together they did it now the facts are we have to fix it we are leaving I'm here tonight for these young people up here in the balcony from this college when I was a young man when I got out of the Navy I had multiple job offers young people with high grades can't get a job people the the 18 to 24y old high school graduates 10 years ago were making more than they are now in other words we were down to 18% of them were making to of the 18 to 24 year olds were making less than 12,000 now that's up to 40% and what's happened in the meantime the Dollar's gone through the floor now whose fault is that not the Dem Democrats not Republicans somewhere out there there's an extraterrestrial that's doing this to us I guess and everybody says they take responsibility somebody somewhere has to take responsibility for this 2000 the national debt is $5.7 trillion that's 9.13 trillion today adjusted for inflation here's Democrat Al Gore using a phrase that would rank among the most notable of alltime debate moments because if we can keep our prosperity going if we can continue balancing the budget and paying down the debt then the strong economy keeps generating surpluses and here's what I would do here's my plan I will keep Social Security in a lock box and that pays down the national debt and the interest savings I would put right back into Social Security 2004 the national debt hit7 trillion 11.65 trillion in today's dollars debating President George W bush here's Democrat John kery and he uses a construct similar to Michael dakus in 1988 we not only fixed Medicare and took it way out into the future we did something that you don't know how to do we balanced the budget and we paid down the debt of our nation for two years in a row we created 23 million new jobs at the same time and it's the president's fiscal policies that have driven up the biggest deficits in American history has added more debt to the debt of the United States in four years than all the way from George Washington to Ronald Reagan put together go figure now 2008 how much was the debt then both Republican John McCain and Democrat Barack Obama provide the answer we obviously have to stop the spending spree that's going on in Washington do you know that we've laid A10 trillion debt on these Young Americans who are who are here with us tonight 500 billion of it we owe to China when George Bush came into office our debt national debt was around 5 trillion it's now over 10 trillion dollar we've almost doubled it and so while it's true that nobody's completely innocent here we have had over the last eight years the biggest increases in deficit spending and national debt in our history and Senator McCain voted for four out of five of those George Bush budgets $10 trillion in 2008 is $146 trillion today four years later debating President Obama Mitt Romney also told us how much the nation owed in debt we've gone from $10 trillion of national debt to $16 trillion of national debt if the president were reelected we go to almost $20 trillion of national debt this puts us on a road to Greece in 2016 both candidates talked about the debt here's Republican Donald Trump we have during his regime during President Obama's regime we've doubled our national debt we're up to2 trillion and here's Democrat Hillary Clinton I have said repeatedly throughout this campaign I will not raise taxes on anyone making $250,000 or less I also will not add a penny to the debt I have costed out what I'm going to do he will through his massive tax cuts add2 trillion to the debt well he mentioned the debt we know how to get control of the debt when my husband was President we went from a $300 billion deficit to A200 billion do Surplus and we were actually on the path to eliminating the national debt when President Obama came into office he inherited the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression he has cut the deficit by 2third so yes one of the ways you go after the debt one of the ways you create jobs is by investing in people and the June 27th 2024 debate President Joe Biden versus Donald Trump here's President Biden he had the largest national debt of any president fouryear period number one finally if it seems like presidential candidates don't talk too much about America's debt in debates there might be a reason consider this how many times have debate moderators asked a question that specifically mentioned the debt just three times the first 2004 here is Bob Sheaffer of CBS News but the price of everything is going up and we all know it health care cost as you all have talking about skyrocketing the cost of the war my question is how can you or any president whoever is elected next time keep that pledge without running this country deeper into debt and passing on more of the bills that we're running up to our children the second time 2016 Chris Wallace then a Fox News our national debt as a share of the economy our GDP is now 77% that's the highest since just after World War II but the nonpartisan committee for a responsible federal budget says secretary Clinton under your plan debt would rise to 86% of GDP over the next 10 years Mr Trump under your plan they say it would rise to 105% of GDP over the next 10 years question is why are both of you ignoring this problem and the third time June 2024 it's what got President Biden talking about the debt here's Jake Tapper of CNN president Trump over the last eight years under both of your administrations the national debt soared to record highs and according to a new nonpartisan analysis president Trump your Administration approved $8.4 trillion in new debt while so far President Biden you've approved $4.3 trillion in new debt so former president Trump many of the tax cuts that you signed into law are set to expire next year you want to extend them and go even further you say with the US facing trillion dollar deficits and record debt why should top earners and corporations pay even less in taxes than they do now and now a bonus clip a specific question about the debt was actually asked in a fourth debate but not by a trained credential journalist by an ordinary everyday citizen the 1992 Town Hall how has a national debt personally affected each of your lives and if it hasn't how can you honestly find a cure for the economic problems of the common people if you have no experience in what's ailing them how did the candidates answer those questions find out by searching the C-SPAN video library next up the September 10th 2024 presidential debate will Donald Trump and KLA Harris talk about or even be asked about the national debt find out by watching and listening live on the cpan networks by the way right now the national debt is $35 trillion that's it for this episode of c-spans the weekly thanks for listening and happy searching [Music]