And then came GWB and Dick Cheney with "Reagan proved deficits do not matter". Right away they slashed dividend income taxes, capital gains taxes, phased out estate tax, took away Medicare's ability to negotiate lower drug prices or re-import them cheaper from Canada [0], and started two long expensive wars (Afghanistan and Iraq).

(It is my personal opinion that the current US Financial situation is due to GWB's presidency. He started this country on this road.)

[0] https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1126891/

The surplus and debt servicing near the end of the 90s didn’t have much effect to the debt: https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/GFDEBTN

Social security and Medicare liabilities mostly wiped out any gains

What surplus there was came from both tax increases and reductions in spending. Along with a strong economy and low employment for tax revenue in the dotcom heyday

Any realistic change to pay down the debt would require substantial structural changes at this point. There’s no political incentive to do anything about that until runaway inflation and the US credit ratings start to really mess things up, and by that point it’s pretty much too late

Not retiring the debt was a choice.

The practical reason for not retiring the debt was that the world needs a zero risk benchmark.

The did retire the long bond, though.

Nah, way too complicated and expensive.

When you're the global reserve currency you can just inflate the currency and kill anyone who tries to use something else.

Cheaper that way because you gotta kill less people.

(joking, but also sadly not joking).

Also bail the people who owe you money out of jail. That’s important too.

Fossil fuels were cheaper too, and dilution was the solution to pollution.

When the entire Europe is in ruins, you can sell pretty much anything from textiles to crops to machinery, anything.

Another strange thing I learned recently is that in 1930s there was another tariff frenzy as well that lasted until the WW2.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoot%E2%80%93Hawley_Tariff_Ac...

Manufacuring might have been a viable path out of debt after WWII, but it isn't right now. If you look at Germany, its manufacturing sector is in decline, and this is the country's strength. China's outcompeting it. Not only is China no longer just producing cheap knockoffs, it has a better manufacturing ecosystem, and it has surplus manufacturing capacity.