Without information on what caused the depressions, all we're left with is post-hoc reasoning instead of causality.

Interestingly, the "great recession" is billed as the cause of the currently wildly out-of-balance budget, and the recession in 2001 started before the budget cuts that knocked the balance began. The debate for the reason to cut the tax rate is only half-remembered. It started out as "we don't want the surplus to feed the beast" but then quickly morphed into "tax cuts = stimulus."

Nobody believes that tax cuts = stimulus any more. Even if that was the reason given for the temporary FICA tax cut and several other tax reductions.

I laugh at the idea of Conservatives saying the government should be run more like a corporation. Well, most corporations borrow money and carry debt ALL THE TIME!

That being said, we do need to work on the deficit and debt before it becomes insurmountable.

Families try to pay off their bills (and mortgages) because at some point, people get old and can't work anymore. Governments don't retire.

I could be wrong.

Just Googled -- Nixon did it in 1969 and Eisenhower did it in 1956 and 1957. Now some people claim that Nixon's balanced budget was really Johnson's economic policies, and that could be true. But it does appear there was a balanced budget that year, regardless of who gets to claim credit.

I got the dates from Dr. Kelton at University of Missouri-Kansas City, but I don't know her exact criteria/methodology.