If you think the debt crisis is bad now ...
Lawmakers need to come to grips with just how deep the nation's debt hole is.
By Peter Coy
updated 7/29/2011 7:34:50 PM ET
There is a comforting story about the debt ceiling that goes like this: Back in the 1990s, the U.S. was shrinking its national debt at a rapid pace. Serious people actually worried about dislocations from having too little government debt. If it hadn’t been for two wars, the tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, the housing meltdown, and the subsequent financial crisis and recession, the nation’s finances would be in fine condition today. And the only obstacle to getting there again, this narrative goes, is political dysfunction in Washington. If the Republicans and Democrats would just split their differences on spending and taxes and raise the debt ceiling, we could all get back to our real lives. Problem solved.
For the rest of the story: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43929476/ns/business-stocks_and_economy/
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