Before the civil war the national debt was quite low, the war
 drove it up. Before WWI the debt fell from the Civil War high to
 2.5% of GDP. That in the range where it could have been paid off
 easily. Before the Great Depression the national debt had fallen
 to 16% of GDP. By the beginning of WWII it had gone up to 50% of
 GDP, and during the war went up to 122% of GDP.

 Through all that the wars drove the dept up, and after the war
 the debt went down. After WWII the dollar amount of the debt
 went up, but the debt to GDP ratio went down. From Reagan on
 three tax hating republican presidents ran the debt up from 33%
 of GDP to 85%. That inspite of Clinton knocking 9 points off
 that increase.

 Obama inherited a debt of $11.7 Trillion, and 85% of GDP
 (Aprox). On top of that he inherited an economic disaster that
 turned out to be a depression. A depression is pretty much
 guaranteed to run up the debt, Yet Obama has held it down to
 just over 100% of GDP, while reducing the deficit faster than
 any president in decades, and recovering the jobs lost in the
 original fall.

 The problem now is, the republicans are blocking any attempt to
 pull the economy out of it's hole. Might be winning politics,
 but it's a loser for the country, a loser for the American
 people.

 Now we have military challenges all over the world, and no money
 to fight a war. It was bad enough to fight in Iraq and
 Afghanistan, but if we have to take on Russia, in a purely
 conventional war, the cost will be horrendous.

 I've never been a conspiracy theorist, but damn, you gotta
 wonder. If you wanted to bankrupt America, if you wanted to
 break this country, can you think of a better way to do it than
 running up our debt to the point where any major military
 action is likely to bankrupt us?

 Not just bankrupt us, but leaving our national wealth committed
 to paying off debts that go to making companies like Goldman
 Sachs richer, the .1% richer, and even those who "contest" with
 us richer.

 How much harder is it getting to be confident that this isn't a
 conspiracy to destroy this country?


BOB KLAHN bob.klahn@sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... The Law of Unintended Consequences carries it own penalties...
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