Pence says Trump’s stance on national debt is ‘identical’ to Biden’s 

Former Vice President Mike Pence said on NBC that former President Trump’s position on the national debt is “identical” to President Biden’s, adding that the former president has not yet promised to “govern as a conservative.”

“Donald Trump’s position on the national debt is identical to Joe Biden’s. And to me, the Republican Party has to be the party of growth, and fiscal responsibility, and reform. I think we owe it to those kids of mine and yours, to my granddaughters, to square our shoulders and be straight with the American people about the magnitude of this national debt,” Pence told host Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.”

Pence, who announced his bid for the White House earlier this month, also said that Trump “promised to govern as a conservative” in 2016, but “he makes no such promise today.” Pence noted that he splits with the former president on two issues, the national debt and anti-abortion policies.

“Not only has he been walking away from a clear commitment to the right to life, but, look, we have a national debt the size of our nation’s economy,” Pence added. “Joe Biden’s policy is insolvency. He won’t even talk about the 70 percent of the federal budget that represents entitlements, that’s driving that debt.”

Todd then said that putting entitlements on the table for the national debt is “unpopular,” adding that Trump took entitlements off the table because it would attract more voters in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa.

“Inflation’s gone up 16 percent in the last two and a half years. It’s crushing the family budgets of millions of Americans, two- thirds of which are living paycheck to paycheck,” Pence added. “They’re starting, in my judgment, to understand that, as government wraps up debt, inflation is happening, and it’s crushing.”

Trump has come out against spending cuts for programs like Medicare and Social Security, saying he would not touch those programs if elected president. Pence told Todd on Sunday that he would create a new program to give Americans “a better rate of return than they have in the government.”