I think that in the long run, you will see periods of deficit spending, then you'll see periods in which the government pays it off. It's happened before, no reason to think history won't repeat itself.
Under FDR, we spent ourselves out of the depression, creating a huge deficit that would later be paid off when the economy recovered. Bush II seems to be doing something similar, creating a huge deficit by spending billions on the military and cutting taxes for the ultra-rich. The next logical part of the cycle is for the next president (or maybe the next one after the next president) will be the one to pay off the bill.
The only amazing part about this story is that in less than four years we have gone from a period in which there was a record surplus projected to a period where we have the biggest deficit this nation has ever known, along with one of the highest spending "burn rates" of all time. Blame it on the war or 9-11, but the truth is that the Bush administration totally wrecked our economy, and has no coherent plan for resuscitating it.
|