Do you believe that borrowing more money is the solution for the economy?

I can't come to grips with it either.

I don't know of anyone who got out of debt by spending more.

Congress and the President need to be more frugal with the taxpayers money. I don't see that happening though.

Well, I suppose that driving the country to insolvency along with all the pain that entails but initiating a new beginning is one way of fixing it.

The best solution is probably to reign in the federal reserve somewhat as their policies are the base cause of the mess (very low interest rates coupled with high liquidity is what fueled the housing bubble) and do little else. A quick input may have shocked the markets out of the panic mode but it happened too slow and further bail outs only serve to throw cash into the fire place. We don't need to repeat the mistakes of the 1930s with the government spending itself into bankruptcy with the so called "New Deal" and prolonging the depression for so many years as it did then. If the government is to get involved at all, then I suspect tax incentives for buying homes, an across the board tax cut, and greatly decreasing capital gains taxes (especially on industry) would be the most help.

This is a global recession. In other words, I believe we are printing the money we need at this time. This will eventually lead to hyper inflation. Also with so many people out of work, the tax revenue collected is much less both for federal and state governments. From what experts say, the budget can't be cut enough to make the difference we need especially while we are fighting in the Middle East. Its far more complicated than a household budget. But the goal should be as you say, a balanced budget. That won't happen anytime soon.

Tightening the belt on unwanted expenditure is the best solution for economy, both for the individual as well for the nation.

Your reasoning is black and white common sense. But there is an important difference between adding federal government debt vs. adding debt of individuals, corporations, and state governments (which is indeed a bad idea). The federal government can borrow at much lower interest rates than any other entity (3-month T-bills are paying about 0.1% interest right now, up from 0.01% a few weeks ago). And the federal government does not have to pay back its debt to maintain its good credit rating that leads to such low borrowing rates. Witness that until 1998 saw 4 straight years of government surplus, the US federal government had run a deficit all but 7 years going back to 1931.

What we are doing in effect is swapping very-high-interest-rate personal and corporate debt for very-low-interest rate federal government debt, which is enormously stimulative to the economy. It is also temporary. Once the credit markets are stabilized at reasonable borrowing rates, the economy can grow again. And we don't need to go back to stupid borrowing, just the normal borrowing that makes a sophisticated economy run.

If we don't do this debt swap, plan on cutting a few extra notches in that belt. We are going to need them.

Ideally piling on more debt to already record budget deficits is not a good idea. But things are extremely bad now..and its taken us a long time of bad policies to get this way. Its the government's responsibility to put us on the right path. The right path is to stimulate with activities that create jobs..and it takes money to do that. You cannot get around it. I would not be doing as much tax cuts as Obama is doing...I would do more infrastructure work which will benefit the country long term. I would also help homeowners stay in their homes...to stop the foreclosures and the pricing of homes free fall.

some elimination of wasteful govt spending is possible but not enough to make a difference.

The real problems have to do with lack of job creating activity and the things you suggest do the opposite. In other words, you are saying that you believe the solution to increase economic activity and create jobs is to slow economic activity and cause more people to lose jobs.

This conservative notion of yours is just like a religious belief that is not founded in reality.

The reality is that there are a lot more things that are in need of government funding that are not getting it or not getting enough. The biggest area of waste in my opinion is in war making and giving billions of dollars away to foreign countries...and yes...we need to cut back on that.

But as far as fiscal responsiblity goes. the thing to do is a) raise taxes on the wealthiest ameircans to the levels where they were back in the early 1960's or at the very least the levels of 1981. If you really are a fiscal responsiblist, then you should agree that we need to have enough money coming in and from those who can afford to pay it the most to pay for our expenses instead of borrowing like a crazy country from other countries. b) we need to look at our workers and try to benefit them...with ease of unions and higher minimu wages and trade policies that do not harm them or outsource their jobs etc..... People will not lose their homes if they have good paying jobs.

If by tightening belts you mean asking the guy who is making $10 million dollars a year to pay a bit more in tax so society can be better off and more people can have better roads and bridges and healthcare etc....then I agree...lets ask them to tighten their fat cat belts for the benefit of society.

No as you said, you can't fix the problem with the exact thing that caused the problem! Kind of like pouring more water into a boat that is sinking...

It will have to be sooner than later, before China starts to call in the debts of America. This will definitely bring us into a third world situation, and life in the USA will be hell.

do you have a better solution???

the economy needs to grow,

China will equal US GDP by 2017 according to current growth, tightening our belts will only speed that up!!