Comment by disgruntledphd2

> We were 10 years from paying off the national debt when Clinton left office. 10 years!

To be fair, if the US government had continued paying off the debt, the only way the (global) books would've balanced would've been for the US populace and businesses to take on waaaaayyyyyy more debt. Not sure if that would've been better.

(For a much better explanation of this, read Trade Wars are Class Wars).