George,

Since the dawn of the modern Republican party, the mantra of a "balanced budget amendment" has been something Republicans tell us we need but rarely do they act on when they have the reins of power. Eight years of President Reagan, four years of President George H.W. Bush and eight years of President George W. Bush had one thing in common, they never submitted a budget in balance.

Their allies in Congress approved each and every one of their debt producing expenditures; the very same debt they now feel should not be honored without cutting everything from Social Security and Medicare to veteran's benefits.

Possibly it makes great political theater trying to hoodwink the citizenry of the magic of a budget in balance, but, in reality, would be very bad policy--just one example of the foolishness of a nation trying to run its business like a business is December 7, 1941. As a nation, the Great Depression had left our national treasury deep in the red, the only practical solution for our ability to build a war machine capable of defeating fascist Italy, Nazi Germany and militaristic aggressors of the Empire of Japan, was for the nation to borrow the equivalent in today's dollars of five TRILLION dollars.

Through bond sale drives and school kids pasting "war bond" stamps in booklets, the United States raised the dollars to defeat the evil forces plaguing the world and emerge not only from the Great Depression but as the strongest economic and military nation of the planet.

Our budget could not have possibly been in balance! In fact,virtually every penny of the five TRILLION dollars in deficit required to build a fighting machine unequaled in history was raised in our own country--unlike Bush's two wars,little if any came from any other nation.

After the war,the nation had to once again borrow heavily to convert back to a peacetime economy, the ratio of debt to Gross Domestic Product was 120 to 150%--now it is 65%.

The United States became the economic powerhouse of the world, our returning veterans became a huge asset because of their ability to receive a quality education under the GI Bill. (The Right Wing opposed it as "too expensive and adding too much to the national debt").

Nineteen fifty three saw the beginning of President Eisenhower's eight year administration, and operating with a top marginal tax rate of some 90%, he was the last Republican president in 54 years to give the nation a balanced budget.

Only LBJ and President Bill Clinton delivered successive balanced budgets since Eisenhower.

Interesting that in today's political climate, the Republicans are once again clamoring for a balanced budget as they did back in 1937--the results of their efforts then were to plunge the nation straight back to recession.

Harry Tenney (Electronic mail, July 31, 2011)