Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt Herbert hoover When a government spends more than it collects in taxes, it borrows from the private sector to finance the budget deficit. The accumulation of past borrowin is the government debt. Debate about the appropriate amount of government debt in the United States is as old as the country itself. Alexander Hamilton be- lieved thata national debt, if it is not excessive, will be to us a national blessing, whereas James Madison argued that \a public debt is a public curse \Indeed, the location of the nations capital was chosen as part of a deal in which the federal