The article looks at how countries can reduce their debt compared to their economy size. They studied 26 democracies from 1995 to 2018 and found that cutting government spending is more effective than raising taxes at lowering debt levels. Spending cuts don't cause big economic problems, but tax increases lead to long and deep recessions. Also, longer periods of cutting spending are twice as successful as short ones. The size of the cuts doesn't seem to matter much for success.