Canada's federal government will have a surplus in 2015, should US politicians visit Ottawa to learn how to balance a budget?

Canada run surplus budgets from 1997 to 2006... and the US failed to learn how to balance its budgets.

Unfortunately for the US, its budget issues a result of its political system. Canada managed to balance budgets because (a) it has a parliamentary system rather than three branch executive which deadlocks on everything, (b) the average US voter is an idiot, and (c) the average Canadian Member of Parliament requires about $30,000 to run for office while the average congress person is not running at $9M. Thus, congress, the Whitehouse, and senate are owned by large business, unions, churches, pact-blocks, etc. and every budget needs countless pork-barrel projects (F-35s, bridges to nowhere, farm subsidies, food stamp programs, etc., etc.) or else those people won't get re-elected.

Most Americans have no clue over budget percentages, interest rates, spending, entitlements, etc. Most politicians and news agencies are so politically divided that they intentionally confuse the situations. Canadians in the mid-1990s had a good grasp of its debts, saw these as a direct threat to their social systems, and voted in and supported governments who did make cuts. Your average congress person would never get elected if they actually said what a 30% cut of the federal budget would look like.

America had a budget surplus in 2000 but the party of the Elephant said, and i quote "Deficits don't matter" and decided to cut tax and go to war. The party of the donkey has decreased the deficit every year it has been empowered, but climbing out of a recession is a tough job. The Europeans are still trying to figure it out. But seriously, congratulations on holding off to 2015. Hoover's insistence on a balanced federal budget is what converted a Wall Street flop in 1929 into the Great Depression of 1932. So congratulate us in not repeating the mistakes of history.

You mean lie to their citizenry. Out of which budget will they pay for this war they are so eager to be a part of. Everyone that is prepping for a war should do a little study of the recent history of the Kurds and our ally Turkey.

it owuld do them good, but they'd probably turn it into a junket