Kimphil,
"And decrease government revenues and increase government spending and you'll eventually balance the budget!"
Yes that's precisely it.
You ever hear you have to spend money to make money? Your sarcasm makes me think you still don't get it. WWII got us out of the depression along with the New Deal, both spending lots of money we didn't have. In order to get out of a downward spiral such things are necessary.
When you want to start a business what do you do? You take out a loan (decrease revenue) build the business, sell the product or service, and pay back the loan. (balance the budget)
Economics are not instantaneous. People think that it’s completely Bush’s fault for the economy. The economy tends to go in cycles. Clinton’s economic policies eventually started working by the time he was on the way out (part of it was the dotcom thing which was unique.) So just in time for Clinton’s economic policies to influence the economy (which went into rescission) Bush took over and had to clean up the mess, and it will take some time before those policies take hold. Another of my favorite Clinton policies is his agreement to give nuclear technology to the N Koreans, (and Boeing three stage missiles (ICBM’s) to China for “weather satellites”) wasn’t that nice of him, which is now a big mess. Isn’t it funny that those who attack us usually do it with our weapons?
I’m sorry for being off topic but Kimphil relies on me for his economics education.