We all know that the Doonesbury comic strip is not very friendly towards the Republicans. So, let us all acknowledge that going forward. And while Trudeau would probably interpret facts differently than most Republicans would, I doubt that he would actually misrepresent the facts themselves. That would be my guess, anyway. The strip in today's paper had the following text: "Fun fact, okay? Since 1776, the United States has accumulated a national debt of $9 trillion, over half of which was incurred when a Bush was on watch! What a family legacy! If you throw in Reagan, fully 70% of the national debt was created under just three Republican presidents! What's more, they didn't even try to restrain spending! Out of 19 submitted budgets, only two were balanced! So, here's my question, dude, where did the myth of GOP fiscal responsibility come from?" Please note that I transcribed the text from the comic verbatim, exclamation points included. Nothing in bold italics is my own. Do these numbers ring true? I'm much to lazy to do a fact check and would welcome any comments that would legitimately either validate or dispute these statistics.
The myth of GOP fiscal responsibility is no less bullshit than the myth of GOP moral values. The last two Presidents to actually balance the budget were named Clinton and Johnson, both Democrats. I can't believe the myth of Ronald Raygun as a great leader has been resurrected. He singlehandedly created more national debt than every President from Washington to Carter combined, supposedly to defeat a Soviet Union that was already collapsing quite well on its own. The GOP puts party above nation, and class warfare above good governance. They're the biggest threat to the USA since Hitler.
In five years a President Johnson NEVER was in surplus. In fact LBJ's last fiscal year the deficit was larger than any deficit under Nixon.