AP FACT CHECK: Pence on national debt

WASHINGTON – A claim from the vice-presidential debate between Republican Mike Pence and Democrat Tim Kaine, and how it stacks up with the facts:

PENCE: “The fact that under this past administration, we’ve almost doubled the national debt is atrocious…. Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine want more of the same.”

THE FACTS: As a share of the total U.S. economy, the national debt has gone up 35 per cent, not a doubling.

Still, the debt has ballooned to $19.6 trillion. This largely reflected efforts by the Obama administration to stop the Great Recession.

Would Clinton similarly increase the debt? Not according to an analysis by the independent Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

The Clinton plan with its tax increases would increase the gross debt — both privately and publicly held— by $450 billion over 10 years. Mind you, that is on top of an $8.8 trillion increase already projected by the government under current law.

As for Trump, the committee says his tax-cut-heavy plan would increase the gross debt by $4.3 trillion —nearly 10 times more than Clinton’s plan would do.

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Contributed by Associated Press economics writer Josh Boak.

EDITOR’S NOTE _ A look at the veracity of claims by political figures