There's also a lot of theory that balancing the budget every year or every change in expenditures isn't a good idea for a federal government. Modern monetary theory (MMT) does a good job of explaining why. The extremely basic idea is that the federal government can create money (so it can't ever miss a payment) and the sum of personal, business, and government exchanges (spending and saving) must sum to zero. So if people and businesses are net saving money, then government must be running a deficit - and the government can always run a deficit unlike businesses or individuals.