"Also, most if not all US states are required to run a balanced budget. This can result in cuts when forecasted revenues don't match actuals. The Federal government simply borrows more money and kicks the can down the road."
This is a misnomer that I see quite frequently: "states must run a balanced budget" and it leads to the exact terrible conclusion you came to: "only the federal government kicks the can down the road".
This is totally wrong. State governments can and do assume debt (generally issue municipal bonds) to cover short term deficits. They play funny money all over their budgets so they can mask what they're doing, but when states like Kansas cut hundreds of millions of highway funding to plug budget deficits, then repeal laws on debt caps and make the department of transportation issue record levels of debt to continue those projects, that's what they're doing. They're taking debt (issuing bonds) to plug deficit holes caused by lowering taxes.
This is a misnomer that I see quite frequently: "states must run a balanced budget" and it leads to the exact terrible conclusion you came to: "only the federal government kicks the can down the road".
This is totally wrong. State governments can and do assume debt (generally issue municipal bonds) to cover short term deficits. They play funny money all over their budgets so they can mask what they're doing, but when states like Kansas cut hundreds of millions of highway funding to plug budget deficits, then repeal laws on debt caps and make the department of transportation issue record levels of debt to continue those projects, that's what they're doing. They're taking debt (issuing bonds) to plug deficit holes caused by lowering taxes.