Politically and economically, I am a pretty conservative person. I don’t believe the government should do it for you. I don’t believe in a (ballooning) tax and spend model. Yes, I believe that Uncle Sam should oversee certain things like international security, assuring an infrastructure is in place and maintained country wide…stuff like makes sense. I do believe a smaller government whenever possible is better…telling you how you should spend or not spend your money or whether you can legally buy a can of soda or not isn’t junk I agree with. Now, before I touch off a political firestorm here, let me just express that I know these are much more complex issues than just saying “spend money on this or cut spending on that” is not likely ever going to be a real process, nor should it…remember the democracy part? Ok, let’s keep it simple, I’m conservative and that’s, that.
Having said that, doesn’t it seem like with all brainpower we have in this great country that we could come up with a simple and fair way to collect and and then spend federal resources in a fiscally responsible way? I mean, 3rd grade math would indicate that you need to collect $10.00 before you can spend $10.00 (forgetting credit and leverage for a minute) and if you only collect $8.00, then you can only spend that much? Credit is a valuable tool and works in many areas of the financial world but I don’t think it has a place in a budget, whether that be a federal budget or the budget of a homeowner’s association or whatever. I know, national defense, seniors, there are a lot of “hot buttons” here because they are all really important budget items but there still should be a way to pay for all of these things without mortgaging the future of our country. How much everyone pays should be fair and equitable from top to bottom, whatever that means, but equally as important, in my opinion, is that it should be clear, easy, simple, predictable, all those magical terms.
Does anyone really think that a deficit (a negative budget) is acceptable, even for one year?
Then, Now & Tomorrow 
i feel its similar to the situation of how much money is owed to China. We are in so much debt to them but yet we keep doing business with them. Why? They need us!!! Its like your 10 dollar and 8 dollar exmaple, we give them 8 dollars; Meanwhile we owe 20. IMO
You’re right, our financial obligation with China is massive and growing quickly. I guess we continue doing business with them because they are the only game in town…they are financing our need for credit while supplying inexpensive goods that we are too lazy to produce more efficiently and cost effectively here. The path of least resistance…
Also, I do realize there are times when it does make sense to pay for things over time of course but the point I was trying to make was that financing something you can afford is much different than a no limit, money printing machine we call a budget.