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Governments typically spend more than they earn Funny how at the end of the 90s, we had set things up to pay down the national debt, and how one of the issues
by betterunix 13y ago
Governments typically spend more than they earn
Funny how at the end of the 90s, we had set things up to pay down the national debt, and how one of the issues in the 2000 election was what to do with the projected surplus. I believe it was Gore Vidal who referred to the "United States of Amnesia."
- Zimahl 13y agoWell, one would assume that had the US not stumbled into 2 expensive foreign wars we probably wouldn't be in the situation we are in now. We went into massive debt during WWII as well we just weren't able to borrow the money from foreign markets, we had to settle for US war bonds.
- mr_luc 13y agoThat's true -- although it highlights just how ridiculous the decision-making around those wars was. In World War 2 the United States was facing other world powers who were capable of converting their entire economies to war purposes; in 2001, the United States was facing a tiny pocket of wealthy and determined radicals who would occasionally try very hard to blow something up.
- eli 13y agoAlso the dot-com implosion, skyrocketing healthcare costs (and medicare expansion), and a series of massive tax cuts.
- jlgreco 13y agoStumbled implies some sort of accident. If I trip on the sidewalk, break my arm, and go into debt with the medical bills, that is a stumble (figuratively, and literally ;). If I blow all my cash and go into debt paying for cool tats to increase my street cred, that isn't a stumble (figuratively, or literally).