really, is a balanced budget necessary? The answer will largely depend on who is being asked the question. Ask Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, or Debbie Wasserman-Shultz, and all of them will, in an almost Pavlovian reflex, respond with “No! We need government spending to stimulate the economy!” If you asked Harry Reid, his response probably would be “Budget? What’s a budget?”
On the other hand, if you ask the same question of any of the Republican candidates during this primary season, all will unanimously agree that of course the nation needs a balanced budget. If any of them has described just how he is going to achieve a balanced budget, it hasn’t been trumpeted with any great fanfare.
As our friends in the media would phrase it, a follow-up question is needed to clarify exactly what actually is each candidate’s concept of a balanced budget. The simplistic answer is that a budget is balanced when the revenues that are generated fund all the spending that is planned. We need to know how Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, and Paul (and even Obama) think they will get revenues and expenditures to match each other.