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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