Eh, the thought is that revenues vary wildly with the state of the economy. If increased spending and/or tax cuts now can stimulate the economy, we'll have lots more money to pay down the debt next year, or so the theory goes.

Personally, I think it's pretty irritating that governments seems to think that the current revenue levels will continue forward no matter where we are in the business cycle. In the past, this has been most noticeable in state governments. Every time there is a boom, California goes and spends all the increased tax revenue and commits to spending it in the future. Of course, this is a problem when the economic boom ends.

I'm just suggesting that we tackle the debt problem when the economy is good. Doing so while unemployment is still 10+% is, I think, risking another downturn, which is going to make paying off the debt even harder.