WQ:

Massive amounts of money flowed into the United States because the Bush administration produced absurd deficits through an utter lack of discipline and ill-advised tax cuts in a time of war. Then we asked foreign investors and governments to buy our debt to finance our lack of discipline. Thomas Friedman has made a convincing case more than once that the Bush White House has never once asked the country to sacrifice anything to prosecute his war.

Go read the whole thing.