Why did the government let the debt build and build up instead of paying it off when it was smaller than what it was today?

It’s something called Keynesian economics. Where it is believed that with government intervention such as spending money they don’t have, they can spike the market economy and get people to spend more money.

There was an example my teacher gave me, and it had something to do with the economy spiraling downward. With enough spending, it is believed that they can get the economy spiraling in the opposite direction.

There was an opposite theory of macro economics but I can’t remember it off the top of my head, and this explanation is a little rough, my apologies.

Hope it helps!

Grover Norquist devised the fiscal strategy for the Republican party years ago when he said that he wanted to shrink the government in 25 years down to the size that it could be “drowned in a bathtub.” The problem was that the federal government had been growing for decades rather than shrinking and federal programs like Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, head start etc. are all popular with the public and would be hard to eliminate. Norquist devised the strategy of “starving the beast.” Instead of taking the unpopular position of attacking social programs he suggested offering popular tax cuts that would later create an economic crisis that would ultimately force large cuts in entitlement programs. .We are in debt because it is the way many conservatives want it. They ran up the debt by giving huge tax cuts to corporations and the wealthiest Americans so they can cut or eliminate entitlement programs everyone else relies on. The amazing thing is that this was never a secret; Republicans have been publicizing this strategy for years but Americans still vote against their self-interest and keep electing Republicans.

Keynesians simply try to level out economic cycles through manipulating spending. When the private sector quits spending the government steps up spending to stimulate the economy and cushion the bottom and when the economy is buzzing it can afford to pay back the money the government spent. Ronald Reagan used Keynesian economics in the 1980’s. Prior presidents worried about what then seemed like a massive debt and cut government spending creating stagflation and an economic death spiral. Reagan ignored the debt and started an expensive arms race with the USSR that lead to the collapse of the USSR and in the process fueled economic prosperity here while in 8 short years spent more than double money than had been spent in our country’s previous 214 years. The problem with Keynesian economics is that you are to use deficit spending to stimulate bad economies you are also supposed to cut spending and pay back the money when the economy is booming again; something Reagan and his successors (with the exception of Clinton) showed no interest in doing.

they want the money

they want the money

they want the money