And that’s a generous account. There weren’t fifty German divisions fighting the western allies until quite late in the war. There were, for example, only four German divisons in North Africa during the battle of El Alamein.
But when the actual fighting starts in a war, it’s too late!
It takes years for production to be ramped up to needed levels, and in the meantime your troops are fighting (and probably losing) with short supplies.
Note that for a year after Pearl Harbor, the surviving carriers were all ones that had been built years before. Even the first new carrier, Essex, arrived a year later, and had been started 4 years earlier, in 1938. (So you could say that the turning point of the war, at Midway island, had been won with ships built before the war started.)
Had a balanced budget amendment been in force then, other programs would have had to be cut to build these ships – like relief & stimulus programs for the lingering Depression – which might not have happened. So it’s likely that many of these ships would have been delayed or not built at all. Thus the US Pacific Fleet would have been much less capable just after Pearl Harbor, and the war wouldn’t have reached a turning point in 200 days.
The government would have worked around a balanced-budget amendment. There’s no way that they wouldn’t. Either they’d do that coin thing they were talking about before, or some of the debt would be in the names of some of the states, or they’d set up dummy corporations that would be allowed to go into debt.
The only way your question makes sense is “What if the United States did not have the wherewithal to fight in World War II?”
And the actress who played the operator of the rescue mission? A very young Joan Collins. No Alexis, she!
Of course, this is the type of MB where 90% of the posters already know that. 
Good choice. It won a 1968 Hugo award, and I believe the screenplay was written by Harlan Ellison (aka the little writer who sues everyone).
I don’t think it is a very likely scenario either. But the question highlights what strong medicine a BBA really is. Usually the answer to these kinds of questions is more or less, “not much effect.” Not in this case. Sounds like a BBA can render a government pretty helpless, which makes me wonder if that is the point.
What is included under ‘normal times’? What other kinds of disasters are commonly given a pass for deficit spending? Let me guess, a Medicare or Social Security shortfall doesn’t make the list.
Not for me. It is surprising how knowlegeable 'dopers can be. I’ve learned something from this.
Except that if you swap Pittsburgh for Iraq we end up squarely back in historical reality. It sounds as if you believe all politicians act in the best interests of their respective nations.
Sort of. Ellison submitted a script but it was not accepted as written. It had a long subplot about an illegal drug ring on the Enterprise which was essentially unrelated to the main time travel story. The script was too long for an hour-long show so the regular writing staff eliminated the drug subplot.
Oops. Shouldn’t have said THAT. Don’t open the door to any process servers this week…
Don’t worry. Ellison’s too busy editing The Last Dangerous Visions to sue anyone.
Fair enough, but anyone who wanted to deficit spend could always claim that. Look at those pesky North Koreans. We aren’t officially at war, but we better ramp up spending just in case!
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Let me guess, a Medicare or Social Security shortfall doesn’t make the list.
[/QUOTE]
No. It doesn’t.