Balance The FEDERAL Budget

[Narmer]

This is a really stupid thread. The federal government is more important than ever and should increase its power at the expense of the states. States are anachronistic institutions anyway that have no place in our world today. Look at Europe. They are consolidating power into a supranational entity in order to remain relevant in today's world. Certain things need to be done at the federal level in order to reach economies of scale.

 

[heyheybooboo]

when were those?

There were surpluses in the Unified Budget in FY98, FY99 and FY2000 <--- approached $230 billion here.

The Clinton Treasury called a boat-load (technical term) of 30-year bonds and 'refi'ed' into shorter maturities, resulting in the average Federal debt maturity being reduced to 4 years-8 months. 30-year bonds were phased out with the last issue in 2002.

That is, until the 30-year bond was brought back in 2006.

The Treasury is still trying to maintain the average maturity at the 4yr-8mth range last time I checked BUT I also heard of a possible issue of 40-year bonds (which I think was BS).

Some European countries use 40-year bonds - I doubt it will fly in the USA.





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