A Bi-partisan issue

In 2001 when George W Bush became President, he inherited a country in good financial shape, and a nice national cash surplus to work with. 8 years later America was bogged down in 2 wars, and was awash in red ink with a massive national debt. Fast forward to 2016, the wars are now less costly, but the national debt is even worse than 8 years ago. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are guilty of letting this situation spin out of control. What can we do to get this national debt paid off, so American taxpayers are not left paying large interest payments in addition to the debt itself?

Originally posted by mchill
8 years later America was bogged down in 2 wars, and was awash in red ink with a massive national debt. Fast forward to 2016, the wars are now less costly, but the national debt is even worse than 8 years ago. Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers are guilty of letting this situation spin out of control.

Why do you see the situation as 'spun out of control'? Don't you think that maybe the current debt is entirely planned as a method to get the US over the mess caused by Bush and the burst bubble?
The real problem is that capitalism has some issues that nobody wants to address:
1. The bubble / bust cycles.
2. The financialization of the economy - brought on by allowing banks to create money out of thin air.
3. The fact that the rich tend to control politics.
4. The fact that many trends if left alone do not necessarily end well.

The biggest issue in the US right now is that too many people believe government should be smaller, yet in direct contradiction want more from the government. They also don't want to make government smaller in a controlled fashion but rather try to sabotage government with either lower taxes or deliberately voting for people like Trump to cause chaos.