George Washington Quotes
..avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt, not only by shunning occasions of expense, but by vigorous exertions in time of peace to discharge the debts, which unavoidable wars may have occasioned, not ungenerously throwing upon posterity the burthen, which we ourselves ought to bear.
Washington, George. "Farewell Address, 19 September 1796." The Papers of George Washington, Presidential Series, vol. 20, edited by David R. Hoth and William M. Ferraro, University of Virginia Press, 2019, p. 714.
Almost every major corporation that is growing must borrow money to finance the growth. There is a great temptation to do this continuously, as if all works out the borrowed money is paid back and the nation has grown. However, not every investment succeeds, and when they do, few nations will take the growth and save it for a future date when a national investment does not work out as well as hoped. Gradually national debt as a proportion of the economy gets larger and larger and it makes mew investments more and more difficult to succeed because of the higher rates of interest that must be paid. Every modern country must find a balance. Those that do not can have a financial disaster such as Greece in the early part of the 21st century.
At the time, many conservatives were threatening not to increase the debt ceiling unless they could get their way on the budget negotiations which would come up later. The Congress had earlier actually committed to spend the amounts when they voted the appropriations that enabled the spending and increasing the debt. Most countries do not have this second stage in that there is nothing the Congress can possibly do to change get back the money that they already voted to be spent, and the process of raising the debt ceiling must be done else the “full faith and credit” of the United States.
George Washington was the first President of the United States (1789-97), the Commander-in-Chief of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. He presided over the convention that drafted the current United States Constitution and during his lifetime was called the "father of his country".
