For those interested in how we might get out of our current financial (and political) predicament, it will be of interest to know how we got into it. The following article in today’s Washington Post gives some history:

Running in the Red: How the U.S., on the road to surplus, detoured to massive debt

The biggest culprit, by far, has been an erosion of tax revenue triggered largely by two recessions and multiple rounds of tax cuts. Together, the economy and the tax bills enacted under former president George W. Bush, and to a lesser extent by President Obama, wiped out $6.3 trillion in anticipated revenue. That’s nearly half of the $12.7 trillion swing from projected surpluses to real debt. Federal tax collections now stand at their lowest level as a percentage of the economy in 60 years.

And this WP article talks about we tried to get out but didn’t:

Origins of the debt showdown

For further political comment, see What Would Eisenwhower Do?