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Yeah, I'm not sure what the author was trying to say there, because that's not even close to true. The US wasn't getting anywhere near to paying off the nationa

by 542458 11y ago

Yeah, I'm not sure what the author was trying to say there, because that's not even close to true. The US wasn't getting anywhere near to paying off the national debt in the 1990s. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_States#/media/File:USDebt.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_of_the_United_St...

theandrewbailey 11y ago
Debt, especially public debt, went down substantially for the first time in decades in the 1990s. Debt-to-GDP went down about 15%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png Had partisan politics not destroyed the progress, public debt would be almost gone in 20-30 years.
macintux 11y ago
At the dawn of the 2nd Bush administration, the US was projected to pay off its debt within ~10 years. The tax breaks and wars following 9/11 wrecked that projection, obviously.
- slavik81 11y ago
  This chart illustrates the cost of those policies: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/28/republican-national-convention-the-one-graph-you-need-to-see-before-watching/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/2...
  - macintux 11y ago
    Hmm, maybe my recollection of 10 years to pay off the debt is incorrect. In any event, I remember the exact moment my dreams of having the debt paid down died: when Greenspan went before Congress to testify on the Bush tax cuts. He gave them the political cover they needed.
HillaryBriss 11y ago
Yeah. I don't quite know what the article author meant when he said that either. Perusing these two US Treasury tables, I get a distinctly different impression: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htm https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/hist... https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/hist... I guess it depends on what the meaning of "close" is.

by 542458 11y ago

theandrewbailey 11y ago

Debt, especially public debt, went down substantially for the first time in decades in the 1990s. Debt-to-GDP went down about 15%. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png Had partisan politics not destroyed the progress, public debt would be almost gone in 20-30 years.

macintux 11y ago

At the dawn of the 2nd Bush administration, the US was projected to pay off its debt within ~10 years. The tax breaks and wars following 9/11 wrecked that projection, obviously.

slavik81 11y ago
This chart illustrates the cost of those policies: https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/28/republican-national-convention-the-one-graph-you-need-to-see-before-watching/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/wp/2012/08/2...
- macintux 11y ago
  Hmm, maybe my recollection of 10 years to pay off the debt is incorrect. In any event, I remember the exact moment my dreams of having the debt paid down died: when Greenspan went before Congress to testify on the Bush tax cuts. He gave them the political cover they needed.

HillaryBriss 11y ago

Yeah. I don't quite know what the article author meant when he said that either. Perusing these two US Treasury tables, I get a distinctly different impression: https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htm https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/hist... https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm https://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/hist... I guess it depends on what the meaning of "close" is.