Matt Yglesias, quoted in full:

Here’s one question I’m all but certain won’t be asked tonight but really should: Given that both tickets are running on rival deficit reduction plans, could you explain to the American people what problem in the typical person’s life today would be ameliorated by a smaller deficit?

I think the right answer is: Nothing. Not because the deficit never matters. There are some times in American history when one could credibly say that deficit reduction would make it cheaper and easier for a person to get a mortgage (or refinance an existing one) or a small business loan. There might be a time when you could say that deficit reduction would strengthen the value of the dollar and raise the average person’s real purchasing power. But today? I think nothing. And yet politicians who are eager to shoehorn their long-term economic policy preferences into a deficit reduction frame are almost never asked to explain why deficit reduction is important.

Got it in one. And yet half the country has been brainwashed by idiot politicians and sycophantic journalists into thinking that THE DEFICIT is the most important problem the country faces. Not unemployment, not income inequality, not broken infrastructure; “Nosiree Bob. We gots to pay down our debt!”

As Matt says, I dearly wish some enterprising journalist would ask why. As Charlie Pierce is fond of saying, “Fk the deficit. People got no jobs. People got no money.” Solve that and the deficit begins to take care of itself.