There's another wrinkle besides taxation. For over a century the British had treated the American colonies with "benign neglect" by never implementing the full extent of mercantilism. After the French and Indian War, not only did the British impose taxes they also began enforcing their trade laws, which had a dire effect on the colonial economy. So the British not only taxed the colonies they also deprived of the means to retain they wealth to pay them.

I think that the analysis misses a few points. The budget was never truly balanced. The borrowing of the Social Security Surplus for the General Fund simply transferred obligations. Also, for the 2001 budget Congress changed the rules allowing government pensions to buy Treasury Notes creating a several hundred billion dollar obligation to these pensions. It also does not take into account that almost the entire so-called surplus was due to increased revenues fromthe Capital Gains tax cut. Lastly, another culprit was Rubin channelling billions in US funds through the IMF to bail out Wall street from bad overseas investments. The moral hazard created eventually helped lead to the stock market meltdown in 2000 (and also lead to an increase in donations to the Democrat party from Wall Street). Ironically, when Paul O'Neil finally stopped this practice it actually prolonged the recession into 2003. That's when Bush finally got his tax policy right.

It WAS NOT A MILITARY COUP!!! It was a constitutional change in government supported by the legislature and ordered by the courts!