Useful survey on when the recent as well as the further back decisions on going into debt were made. From April, but so very relevant today.
Running in the red: How the U.S., on the road to surplus, detoured to massive debt
The Washington Post, April 30, 2011
The nation’s unnerving descent into debt began a decade ago with a choice, not a crisis.
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All told, Obama-era choices account for about $1.7 trillion in new debt, according to a separate Washington Post analysis of CBO data over the past decade. Bush-era policies, meanwhile, account for more than $7 trillion and are a major contributor to the trillion-dollar annual budget deficits that are dominating the political debate.
. . . . . .
William Hoagland, who was for years a top budget aide to Domenici and other GOP Senate leaders, said it is simplistic to think today’s fiscal problems began just 10 years ago. In 1976, as a young CBO analyst, Hoagland produced a long-term simulation that showed entitlement costs gradually overwhelming the rest of the federal budget.
“This situation really goes back to long before [the Bush administration], which is to say to old dead men that have long left the Congress,” he said.
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