It turns out that the U.S. government has been a bit less irresponsible in the past than advertised. While we run deficits during most fiscal years, they have not been large enough to push the national debt to the sorts of levels seen in Greece, Italy and Japan, which have even larger public debts as a share of national income.
As with the boy who cried wolf, the public is becoming numb to the constant warnings about a debt crisis.
Today, however, there really is reason to be concerned about the budget deficit.
For the first time in history, America is seeing its budget deficit rise dramatically higher during a period of peace and prosperity. While there have been even bigger deficits on occasion — measured as a share of GDP — they were always associated with a temporary situation such as war or high unemployment....
