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But the really interesting stuff is the detail, and what leaps out again and again is how much of a hill the US has to climb. Exhibit a is the fact that under the Obama administration’s current fiscal plans, the national debt in the US (on a gross basis) will climb to above 100pc of GDP by 2015 – a far steeper increase than almost any other country.
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http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/budget/Historicals/
Table 1.3
in 2009, receipts as a percentage of the GDP had plunged to less than 15% while outlays were up to almost 25%.
Historically, receipts and outlays have both been around 20%.
We need to get those receipts back up to 20%. The last time receipts were under 17% was in 1959. The last time under 16% was in 1950. Even at the lowest levels under Reagan, receipts were 17.3%.
The current 25% outlay includes temporary things like TARP and the stimulus that have or soon will be expiring. Beyond that, it's a matter of then reducing outlays from 23% of the GDP to under 21%. It should NOT be that hard to do this within a five year period.