Thoughts on Balanced Budgets and National Debt

Let me say up front that I am not trying to turn over a new leaf by posting more often. It’s just that I’ve been pondering (that was for you, Maggie) the noise coming out of Washington about the Debt Limit, and there are a lot of little things that set off alarm bells in my head.

I am mindful, for instance, that we had a balanced budget as recently as FY 2001. (Yes, those budgets were passed by a Republican-controlled Congress.) It was after that when “The Decider” decided to run his GWOT off-budget and lower taxes for the wealthy, etc. Then it was okay, but since January, 2009, we must play by the numbers?

Ironies abound when one considers “defense” spending. Conservatives and Liberals seem to agree that, although there is enormous waste in the system, no one wants a weapons system being developed in their district trimmed or a base in their district closed. That may explain why overseas bases are often mentioned as being extraneous.

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Wars, of course, need to be fought, which brings up the question of funding those. If we enact a Balanced Budget Amendment and an unplanned war breaks out (or becomes expedient), how is that going to work? We probably couldn’t legally sell War Bonds.

This morning I read this post at Reuters about the last time we eliminated the National Debt. I don’t think we could get away with dispossessing Native Americans again, but selling our National Parks could bring in some cash. (Not enough, obviously.)