It's not looking good for the poor pitiful deficit or the national debt, that's for sure. None of these folks are really interested in cutting spending, they just differ on what they want to spend money on. That is - BORROW and spend on. It used to be that candidates at least paid lip service to the debt, they'd at least say they were going to reduce the deficit, even if they didn't dare say they would actually reverse the deficit and reduce the actual debt. Now they don't even talk about reducing the deficit, it's weird, like alice in wonderland .. and apparently some kind of a race to the bottom where everybody dog piles on top of the last dollar trying to grab it before the world ends.
Lower spending. Reduced entitlements. Less pork. No more social engineering projects. No more tax cuts. No more unfunded wars. Stop talking about universal health care when we can't pay for the stuff we already fund. Let's have some fiscal responsibility! Some restraint! We need a lot less Gee Whiz and a lot more basic discipline.
I'm just glad pawn shops don't deal in big things like aircraft carriers or we'd be in real trouble.
Edit ...
Each of us owes approximately 30k$us on the national debt. I would like to see a candidate tell us their plan for paying it off and be candid about how much interest each and every one of us in America is paying on that debt. Maybe someone could come up with a plan to pay it off if we were honest about what has to be done - something short of just sending every person in the United States a bill for 30k$us.
Edit #2 ...
Maybe we could get the debt paid off if politicians would just be honest (I know, I'm dreaming). I think the American people would even be willing to pay higher taxes if we KNEW that the extra money was reducing the debt burden and that it would, in the end, help us pay less in interest. Let me say it again - if every American could actually trust Washington D.C. to charge them an extra 1k$us/year in taxes I think we'd pay it if we KNEW WITHOUT A DOUBT that it would reduce the national debt by 1/30th and that our taxes would get reduced by the amount of interest we would be saving on the national debt. That's how normal people get out of debt, they start paying it down. It ain't sexy but it works. Problem is NOBODY in their right mind would believe that Washington D.C. politicians would actually do it - sure, they'd raise the tax by 1k$us/year, they'd love that, but then they'd just spend it on something else we don't need instead of paying the debt like they should be doing. How do we know they'd waste it ? Because that's what they say they are going to do every time they open their mouths! All we have to do is believe what they are saying they are going to do!