It doesn’t have to be this way. Or does it?

I would contend that it is impossible for the United States to have both a balanced budget and the world’s reserve currency. It is the US Dollar that runs the world.

If the US were to have a balanced budget, then there would be no increase in wealth around the world (in nominal terms), because every liability of the US government is someone else’s asset. The years when the US had a balanced budget (in the post-World War 2 era) were always lea-in’s to a recession in the US. And it is true that under Austrian Economic Theory, recessions were the cleansing of the excesses of the last expansion. But, for worse or worse, we aren’t living under that type of system, where the world revolves around economic balance. Instead, it revolves around credit. And the US is the biggest abuser of credit on the planet. But it’s that credit, extended to the US, that is responsible for all the (phony) wealth on the planet.

Now, any politician voting for a recession would find a new home on the sidewalk (which is probably a good thing). But if the US Dollar is going to maintain its status in the world’s banking system (which isn’t certain), the political class in Washington, DC will do their damnedest to prevent a recession. Which means they will never balance the budget.