Divecon is a big boy and if he thought what you say I was implying, I'm sure he would have mentioned it. I spoke to the issue of the we the people being responsible for the additional debt, above the annual operating budget of the federal government, which we allowed the government to incur.I stand by my comment.well, it needs SOME surplus year to year to pay down the massive debt
once the debt is paid, then yes, they have no need of a surplus
We the people, albeit by proxy, approved through our elected officials that the government take on debt. Therefore, since we the people are, in the truest since of the words "the government", we are indeed responsible for the debt we allowed our elected officials to take on on our behalf, hence granting the government to collect additional monies through taxation to cover the debt we incurred.
Divecon is talking about a budgetary surplus, you seem to be using the term in the sense of the Govt having excess assets as opposed to debt.
You need a budget surplus to pay down a debt.