How in the world did the US Federal government ever achieve a balanced budget and how can they go about ever doing it again?

Question

Follow up: is it realistically achievable ever again, and should it even be a goal to be concerned with?

In: Economics

Answer 1

You can’t have a global empire, a welfare state, and a balanced budget. 

Not unless you plunder and extort other countries for resources, but that only works for so long.