US government debt was worse in the decades following WW2--120% of GDP. To reach that point we would have to have 18 trillion dollars of current US debt. We're short of that by a couple of trillion.
Recall, that the decades following the war were some of our more robust economic times, before Reaganomics reduced our tax base by giving tax cuts to the rich. Years of Bushnomics and Clintonomics further eroded our tax base. Foreign wars and a trillion dollar a year military are further putting us into a hole. What the economy needs is spending--since business is reluctant to spend and consumers are reluctant to spend—the US government must be the spender of last resort. And spend we must to get us out of the hole we're in. (What hole?-- 18 million under- and unemployed, massive housing foreclosures, an economy that is speculation/investment-centric rather than manufacturing-centric.) So, raise high the debt and watch the good times roll once more. Once our ship is righted, we can pay down the debt, and restore the tax cuts for the rich and start manufacturing again and reduce the powers of true rulers of our country--the huge Wall Street banks.
