| I personally think it's gonna be financial problems that does the US in eventually. If one day we fall from being a major world power, it'll be because of financial problems. We'll get into more wars than we can afford and people will stop loaning us money.
However, one thing to consider about the debt that Bush racked up is that interest rates were pretty retardedly low at the time he took office. And borrowing money isn't exactly stupid all the time. If the loans an entity takes out are backed up by capital that holds its value fairly well, then it's not an entirely stupid decision. I'm not motivated enough to actually go find the numbers, but I think the last time I checked, the US government held more assets than it had outstanding debt.
Also, it's pretty difficult to make budget cuts these days. Earlier in Bush's term, he cut some veteran's benefits, and I remember everyone on the news going nuts. In terms of public opinion, making the kind of budget cuts that are required would be suicide. However, the best thing for the US at this point would be to seriously cut back on a lot of the expenditures we have now.
But that still doesn't make me a fan of Bush's spending. Interest rates or not, he's running up debt for things that I don't believe are worth going into debt for. And I'm not sure the democrats are going to be that much better. Sure, they'll go into debt less, but like your table illustrates, we haven't had a president in the black in the past 80 years or so. Neither the democrats or the republicans really represent fiscal responsibility. Sure, I could vote for a libertarian canidate & hope that the big 2 take notice, but that's prolly not going to turn things around fast enough. And I still can't help but think that I'm throwing my vote away when I vote 3rd party.
And while I'm writing, I might as well throw my opinion in the mix. It shouldn't exist. If the government was a mutual fund manager, it'd be fired by now. If I invested the social security money in a 401k or an IRA, I'd easily have enough money to retire semi-comfortably on, instead of the measly checks the government pays out. But instead, the government uses that money as a mega low interest long term loan.
Anyways, as an aside, it's kinda crazy how this forum has picked up. Didn't this used to be the place where idiots told each other about how homosexuals should all be thrown into a big pit & burned alive? |