I was going to ask whether annual expenditure has ever decreased year over year but I found the answer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

I was going to ask whether annual expenditure has ever decreased year over year but I found the answer. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt Looks like it's not unprecedented but debt over GDP hasn't decreased year-over-year since before Reagan, so it just hasn't happened in most of HN's visitors' lifetimes.