we ran much larger deficits as a precentage of GDP during the mid-80s during the Reagan military build-up. Eventually we "absorbed" these deficits and the size of the deifict stabilized again. In the past we have run rather large deficits,and then we get back to base-line. At the moment we are fightin' a war(whether u feel this war is worthwhile is another topic) and are recovering from the economic shocks of 9/11. Bush and Co. felt it would help to get the economy rollin' again by giving a tax cut,which in effect puts more money back in the hands of the people,which in turn is better spent by those people and this spurs the economy. People buy shit better than the govt does. In the short term though we will run a deficit larger than typical,but the economy will benefit. which it has as one can see by the recent turnaround