Amusing conversation. Republican or more correctly, nut-wings, conveniently forget it was Reagan who started the path on corporate giveaways and unending wars funded with deficit spending. You end up paying - with interest - for republican rule. A returning Iraq war vet. puts is best. Last time Republicans held a majority in the U.S., what did âtheyâ accomplish? Two wars 6000 dead soldiers Attack on our home soil 3000 lost civilian casualties Lost my foot to an IED in Iraq Crashed the Economy Deregulated the Banks Made Posh deals with big OIL and COAL Did NOTHING ON IMMIGRATION REFORM FOR ARIZONA Stole an ELECTION WITH A RIGHT WING SUPREME COURT DECISION to start it after losing the POPULAR VOTE IN THAT ELECTION Destroyed our standing in the world. Called N. Korea, Iran and Iraq our most hated enemies. Declared MISSION ACCOMPLISHED prematurely I could go on and on. LOST THE MIDDLE CLASS WAGES WENT DOWN Jobs went from middle class to lower class. Sold out our companies overseas BORROWED MORE MONEY FROM CHINA THAN OBAMA HAD DREAMED OF Again, TOOK MY FOOT IN AN ILLEGAL WAR IN IRAQ over a lie. Passed the biggest intrusion into personal freedom with the Patriot act Tortured our enemies against the Geneva Conventions signed authorities I could go on but I will stop there. That should get me plenty of haters. Katrina disaster Need I say more. IT IS ALL THE TRUTH, THOUGH! Rampant ignorance and stupidity is worn as a "badge of honor" by the nut-wings. As always it's the VOTER who is the real problem. LOOK IN THE MIRROR. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.
You are falling back to the proper measure of indebtedness (as a % GDP) ... Roosevelt ran a much bigger deficit than the reagans years, like 120% of GDP at the time with no economic growth. In 1980, the last year of Jimmy Carterâs presidency, government outlays were running at 21.7% of GDP and the budget deficit was 2.7% of GDP. (The economy was also a basket case, which is when you would expect budget deficits to be at their worse.) In 1988, Reaganâs last year in office, outlays as a percent of GDP were running at 21.3% with a deficit of 3.1% of GDP. The budget deficit over Reaganâs eight years averaged 4.2%. Whe Bush left office, our Public Debt was at 63.4% of GDP. In less than two years under president Obama, our Public debt is 83.4% of GDP.
The 120% was after Roosevelt and after WW2, but yes, it did explode pre-war as well. The bottom line is that the gross federal debt was around 30% of GDP at the start of the first Reagan term and ended over 60% by the time his Veep was booted from office a mere 12 years later. That is a full-on doubling and inexcusable from a self-proclaimed "conservative". The normally-reported numbers are incredibly misleading as they don't account for Reagan's co-opting of social security and the resultant fiscal smoke and mirrors. Allowing those shenanigans is a real black mark on Volker's legacy.