The United States is facing a mounting government debt and spending crisis, and neither of the presumed Republican or Democratic presidential candidates offer much hope to fix it, Cato Institute Economist Dan Mitchell said recently at the Iowa Farm Bureau’s Economic Summit.

"I don’t think either major candidate supports what we need," he said. "I don’t think (Donald) Trump even thinks about it. Hillary (Clinton) is definitely on the wrong side."

U.S. government debt now exceeds the country’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) output, Mitchell pointed out. The current debt-to-GDP ratio is 105 percent and is projected to grow to 450 percent unless major spending cuts are made. The debt ratio...