Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
I am pretty sure, and someone correct me if I am wrong, but during most of the nineteenth century we had high tariffs that brought in a lot of revenue and the Federal government was not spending a lot of money. So unless we were at war we were running surpluses. It wasn't until WWI that we started running deficits consistently.
Am I wrong?
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You are correct that until WWI, the country generally was spending less than revenue, and paying down debt built up during wars (revolutionary, civil, etc.).
But I think we've gone long enough with persistent deficits to give high relevance to the recent historical practice, and not excuse it based on the first century of thecountry's existence.
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