XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, talk.politics.guns   
   From: x@y.com   
      
   If this is a medical emergency, stop reading, log off, and dial 911!   
      
   >Wrong and wrong.   
   >   
   >It's government *debt* that's not a bad thing. The surplus was   
   >reducing the debt. If the surplus had continued long enough, the   
   >debt would go to zero which is also not a bad thing.   
   >   
   >The US has proven to pay off its debt until Don Felon which is   
   >good thing because it reduces the interest we pay. Having debt and   
   >paying it off is a positive thing.   
   >   
   >With Reagan we lost control of the deficit. If you liken the   
   >economy to real estate, the deficit is a loan against equity   
   >appreciation. But you have to keep the deficit under control in   
   >case some day the family gets real sick and we have to borrow till   
   >we get better.   
      
   You jumped in before we got there.  Yes, a surplus is, actually, a   
   negative deficit and debt is an unreconciled deficit.  I think of the   
   national budget like my body weight... neither over-weight nor   
   under-weight is a healthful condition.  The "ideal body mass index" is   
   a theoretical target, such that, if you're within 5%, you're doing   
   well.   
      
   Any US politician who tried to balance the budget, let alone start   
   reducing debt, would be tarred, feathered, and ridden out of office on   
   a rail because he or she would either have to cut government spending   
   or raise taxes (and, likely, both).  When the Tee-party demanded   
   spending cuts, what they meant was eliminate parts of the government   
   that they didn't like... i.e.: the other party's projects.  (But   
   *ours* are important!)   
      
   There is one other way to reduce debt: inflation reduces the magnitude   
   of debt's value.  Inflation isn't something the Biden administration   
   did (nor the Trump administration, while we're here).  Inflation is a   
   way economics naturally tries to balance the books.   
      
   The US isn't carrying particularly heavy debt, relatively speaking.   
   The entire global economy is based on debt and inflation.  The last   
   *big* global economic reset was in 1929.  There *will* be another.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)