Your uncle, Sam, has ignored his chronic health condition let's say he's diabetic for a long time. Then he suddenly has a heart attack, followed by a long, slow painful recovery. As he is recovering, he is feeling good about his health after all, he got though a crisis. But he is not actually healthier than he was before. He's still diabetic, and now he has to deal with the cautions of being a heart attack victim as well. I think of a situation like that whenever I hear or read people saying that our debt problems are behind us.