#US #debt was 119% of GDP in 1946. #Budget surpluses in 4 of the next 5 years reduced it to 68% by 1953, the largest was 4.3% in 1948, the equivalent to $1.16 trillion in today's #dollars. The same reduction today requires about $30 trillion of #tax #hikes and #spending #cuts by #2030. In 1946 the #government didn't have to raise #taxes at all, or make cuts to domestic spending. Taxes had already been raised during the war to pay for it. So after the #war ended all the government had to do to create budget surpluses was cut war-time #military spending.