The excuse, I believe, is that the public refuses to allow...
Sadly, our federal representatives are all democratically elected, except for the president. And that is partly why we are in the mess we are in.
yep. We want to blame the politicians, but we ARE the politicians. Republicans want much lower taxes and much higher defense and security spending. Democrats would be fine with much higher taxes, but never to be used for debt reduction, only for redistribution (after taking large cuts for themselves and their cronies).
That there was even an apparent period in the 90s when budgets were balanced even for a short time was just an accidental miracle produced by gridlock.