Charlie Rose asked Friedman if he, as a conservative, was not very concerned that Reagan's tax cuts led to enormous deficits.

Charlie Rose was taken aback when Friedman replied: 'Oh no, not at all - the bigger the debt the better, because only if the the debt burden becomes unbearable will people agree to get rid of the New Deal programs' (such as Unemployment programs, Social Security, etc).

That is exactly the situation today: the accumulated debt has become so unbearable that everybody is alarmed and many people are now ready to junk just about the entire social safety net.