U.S. Debt Graph
U.S. Debt - 50 Years Via
As one can see, it is not correct to argue, as some have in recent months, that Democrats are much better at reducing the national debt. At least, not in general terms. The last three Republican presidents, however, have been horrific in this regard: Nixon, Ford and Eisenhower were all prudent spenders, the Reaganite conservatives, however, not.
I don’t know why anybody even takes the argument seriously, Michael. If you wanted to stretch the logic even further, you could say that FDR created the largest increase in debt, and therefore Democrats are the least fiscally responsible.
But we know FDR’s spending had to do with World War II, that Reagan’s spending had to do with both the Cold War and the fact that he was working with a Democratic Congress, and that Clinton had to work with a Republican Congress.
We can also speculate on some of the reasons that the deficit went up under Bush, but we have to get away from dumb talking points first.
Michael, come on…
As one can see, it is absolutely correct to argue in general terms that Democrats are better at reducing the debt than Republicans since 6 out of the 6 Democratic administrations in the last 58 years have done so.
On the other hand, the debt has gone up dramatically under 5 out of the 9 Republican administrations in that same time period.
So 45% of the time the Republicans reduce the debt and 100% of the time the Democrats do.
Case closed.
Justin,
Again–lets expand the chart to include FDR’s presidency. You really can’t be serious
Shush, redfish! Justin said the case is closed! LOL
Can we get time machines made more quickly so I can go back and vote for Ike?
Anyway, Redfish, the Republicans had control of the Senate under Reagan for six years. I haven’t studied the period well. Was this a time when they simply sucked at gathering votes like the Dems are now?
Because it’s generally more difficult to get legislation through the Senate, but the Republicans were able to do it pretty handily during Bush 43’s first six.
@redfish
Yes, I’m serious because my comment was about Michael’s incorrect characterization of this graph.
I completely agree with your point about FDR, but let’s remember what he had to go through. Do you really think we would have pulled out of the Great Depression and won WWII without increasing our debt?
Justin,
Yes, but why am I allowed to take in the context of FDR’s presidency but not the context of Reagan or Clinton’s presidency?
Or even the context of GWB’s presidency- if you’re going to allow for the situation of ‘going through’ the Great Depression, how about also considering what Bush has had to lead through the last eight years? 9/11, worst terrorist attack on American soil; two wars (OK, even granting that only one of them is considered necessary by many people); Katrina, worst natural disaster in American history; and now the financial market meltdown? I’d dare say that combination of crises is pretty unprecedented, and while it doesn’t excuse all of the spending mentality it does make it a bit unfair to compare his budget to say, Ike, JFK, Nixon, Ford, and Clinton.
“Reagan’s spending had to do with both the Cold War”
As opposed to Truman, Ike, Kennedy, LBJ, Nixon, Ford, and Carter?
As MM pointed out Reagan had a Senate with a slim R advantage for most of his presidency.
Come on now, take off the ideological blinders.
The spending is of course depending on the country’s needs and also based on the intelligence of the financial minister. Between individuals, there are different way of thinking thus the spending is also different.