Purely as a descriptive matter, why do Americans care so much about budget deficits?
The United States has a history of unusual concern about federal (although not state) budget deficits, going back to the earliest days after adoption of the Constitution. Other industrialized nations generally have not shown similar levels of concern, even when they have had comparable or greater budget deficits (or outstanding national debt) relative to their economies. Our deficit fixation results in part from equating government debt with an individual’s or household’s debts, which generally could not grow for decades at a time without raising a serious prospect of default. In addition, deficits are a deeply rooted symbol in American history, the meaning of which has changed over time, but that continually relates to distrust of the national government. The historical lineage from Thomas Jefferson’s denunciations of the deficit to those of H. Ross Perot should alert us to the cultural conditioning that needs to be left to one side for purposes of clear analysis. 2) Are the national
