The tendency of the United States government to spend more than what it perceives from the taxpayers radically reversed the fiscal behavior that ex-president Bill Clinton had maintained, to the point of turning the fiscal deficits as the dominant characteristic in the financial landscape of the Union.

According to the financial and political conditions existing in the country, and in the struggle to recover from the fiscal deficit, it is predictable that the National Treasurer will have to consider the possibility of running into higher levels of debt than the current ones.

The problem is that, by increasing the acquisition of debt, the government will exert pressure on the interest rates, even though they are currently at its lowest level in 40 years. But they could easily raise, thus causing severe repercussions on the growth of the U.S. economy.

Depending on its depth, this eventuality is not far from becoming a terrible threat to the political and social stability of its business partners, particularly the smaller ones.

Therefore, the U.S. fiscal deficits are not just an internal concern of the Americans. They are also a worry for those who are hoping to bind their local economies to the economy of this country by involving themselves fully in the negotiations of a free trade agreement.

Besides, the fact that this policy of the American government runs opposite to some of the fiscal measures that have been implanted during the last few years in the region is a paradox.

While these governments are pressured to reduce their budget levels, or they waste themselves politically by increasing tax revenues, the regime lead by George W. Bush is establishing fiscal policies that in a short term could compromise, not only its own growth, but also the growth of its business partners.

The worst part is that the culture of public irresponsibility doesn’t seem to belong exclusively to the developing countries because the Republican administration—even though it has acknowledged that the fiscal deficit for this year and the foreseeable future is worrisome—still considers it as ‘manageable’ when compared to the level of production of goods and benefits.

But there are some who think that, in view of the slow pace of the U.S. economic-growth recovery (combined with problems like the financial implications of the war against international terrorism), it is predictable that the surprising and potentially dangerous fiscal deficits can continue to increase.