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Republicans and Democrats in recent decades have hewed to a kind of grand bargain, raising spending and cutting taxes, and papering over the difference with a lot of borrowed money.
From 1972 to 2021, the government, on average, spent about 20.8 percent of gross domestic product while collecting about 17.3 percent of G.D.P. in revenue. It covered the gap with \$31.4 trillion in I.O.U.s --- the federal debt.
The United States paid \$475 billion in interest on its debts last fiscal year, which ran through September. That was a record