U.S. Budget Deficit: How to fix the problem in 5 steps
Tuesday, May 4th, 2010
Beginning with President Woodrow Wilson in fiscal year 1917, the U.S. has run a cumulative budget deficit every year. In 1916, President Wilson’s $63 million cumulative surplus switched to a $790 million cumulative deficit in 1917. He managed this by being the first president in the 1900’s to ever spend nearly $1 billion over his revenues while also being the first president with a multi-billion dollar source of collected revenue. That’s the financial cost of war–specifically, World War I.
Since World War I, from a cumulative deficit perspective, the U.S. has never recovered financially due to spending incurred by each subsequent major outlay of funds: Wars, social engineering programs or depressions/major recessions. During 2010, our total cumulative deficit is over $8 trillion dollars. That means that each living person in the U.S. has an equivalent debt of nearly $27,000.
