FWIW, the national debt is around $13.8trillion and the 2009 GDP is about 14.8trillion, which puts the debt to GDP ratio closer to 90%. What an I missing?
I think history will repeat what we saw in 2000: the US had close to a balanced budget, and the opportunity to pay down the debt was near, but the tax rates and subsequent revenues were cut to appease the Repubs, and the rest is history. It will not be sufficient to just balance the budget, there has to be some progress in paying down the national debt.
The interest on the debt which is the third largest component of the fedgov budget will eclipse defense spending in 3-5 years, that is $600-700billion dollars annually of juice as the loan sharks call it, just to stay even.