Not quite anything

In 1981, when President Reagan said "only by reducing the growth of government can we increase the growth of the economy," the Federal debt was less than one trillion dollars. After Reagan, and Bush, and Clinton the Balancer, and another Bush, and the Great Recession and the not-so-great recovery, we have managed to increase the Federal debt from one trillion dollars to twenty.

At this point, people are so angry they can't think straight. We'll do anything to reduce the debt.

But no, that's not true. We won't do just anything. Almost anything, yes, but not anything. We won't, for example, change our strategy. The higher the debt goes, the more tenaciously we cling to the view that Federal spending cuts are necessary. And it's not only conservatives who cling. This image is from the overtly liberal Huffington Post:

Source: HuffPo

Yeah, I know: By the time you read all those examples, you're ready to cut Federal spending. Me, too.

See? We cling fiercely to the belief that Federal spending cuts will solve the problem. They won't. But no matter: The higher the debt, the more we cling.

We have added $19 trillion to the debt since President Reagan said we need to reduce the growth of government. I can't imagine how much we would have added if reducing government wasn't the heart and soul of our strategy.

How long will it take us, I wonder, to realize that our strategy -- reducing the growth of government to increase the growth of the economy -- has failed. How long will it take, before we are ready to try a different strategy.