Washington (AP) -- The United States is on the threshold of a truly remarkable turnaround in financial fortunes: the tantalizing prospect that the booming economy could make the federal government debt-free in just 15 years. And it could happen, for only the second time in the nation's history, with seemingly no heavy lifting. If politicians simply leave current policies alone, the president's Office of Management and Budget projects the $3.7 trillion debt held by the public will be wiped out in 2014. The Congressional Budget Office is even more optimistic, predicting publicly held debt could be gone by 2012.
[snip]
... the experience of President Andrew Jackson, the only president to eliminate the debt, should ... serve as a cautionary tale. In his 1832 campaign for the White House, Jackson called the debt a ``national curse'' and in 1835 fulfilled his pledge to wipe it out, creating a surplus of $440,000. But even before he left office, the debt was rising again as the country entered a six-year recession. ``Paying off the national debt doesn't automatically mean economic good times,'' historian John Steele Gordon said. ``After Jackson did it, the country went into the longest recession in its history.
[end of story]
Carl Remick