Need help with a classmates reply to their discussion.

Should the government always balance its budget? If you think it should, what steps do you suggest that it should take to balance its budget?

I think that the government should try to always balance its budget but there have been and will be times the it is necessary for the government to have budget deficits, such as in times of crises. According to Mankiw (2015), a balanced budget means greater national savings, investments and economic growth.  Therefore, the government should strive to always balance its budget.  The steps that I would suggest that it would take to balance its budget would be increase revenues and cut discretionary spending,

What is the relationship between budget deficits and national (public) debt? Why has the USA national debt been increasing for decades?

According to an article that I found, National Debt vs. Budget Deficit (n.d.), "the Budget Deficit is the shortfall between what the government spends during a single year compared with what it brings in during a single year.  The National Debt, on the other hand, is the accumulation of all the Budget Deficits for every year since the United States has been in existence." I think that the national debt has been increasing for decades because the government continues to borrow to pay the previous year's budget deficit.