Yes, it’s true that it was relatively easy to cut spending after World War II. However, during the war the United States ran massive deficits — more than 20 percent of GDP for three years. What the big cuts in defense spending after the war did was mostly to close those deficits; big defense spending during the war didn’t somehow make it easier to pay down debt after the war was over.What? simply not spending in excess of what one earns is not enough to end the debt?
The fact is that the war left America with a big debt — bigger, relative to our resources, than we’re likely to face when the economic rescue is over. We dealt with it.
[ cf 1945 ]
WHAT? how can that be?
He doesn't mean that on top of sorting out the excess expenditures, that there was some process that involved actually paying down the debt... Why that would mean that fiscal conservancy was more than merely Prayer Warriors calling down god's wrath upon the unbelievers!