So... Who's REALLY responsible for all our debt? (con't)

Continuing my "Who ran up all this debt?" discussion from earlier, I thought I'd break the main graph down a little further, as well as add another little chart to perhaps put all this in perspective. (And take a few more cheap shots at Reagan, just to shut the Johnny-come-lately Reganite Deficit-Hawks up.

The first thing that frustrated me about my last post was the fact that "FDR" had such a huge chunk, and that he was not only getting blamed for others who ran up the debt, including debt he inherited, but also credit for those who may have brought it down. So... I thought I'd go all the way back to WILSON. And to really do this right, I need TWO graphs: One to show the contributions of all the presidents who ADDED debt over their years in office (adjusted to 2010 dollars, juat as before) and a second that shows the relative contribution of the presidents that REDUCED the debt during their administrations, and how they compared relative to one an other; again in 2010 Dollars.

Graph#1:

This graph reresents all of the net-debtor Presidents. The total is $14.7 Trillion dollars (in 2009 Dollars) which is more than our current Debt, but don't forget that this ignores the results from all those who paid in DOWN during their term in office.

Graph#2:

This is how the Net-Creditor or Net-Surplus Presedents compare. It's worth noting, for both graphs, that we had to pay a LOT for World War II. President Roosevelt ran up that bill, and President Truman paid it.

But just think about that for a minute... Franklin Roosevelt had to deal iwth both the great depression AND the Secord World War.  Doing so he ran about about the same level of debt that Ronald Regan did.  But... What was Reagan's exscuse? SERIOUSLY!

Now... I mentioned ealier that it IS rather alarming that in ONE YEAR, President Obama has run up a deificit that amounts to just uner 12% of the OVERALL NATIONAL DEBT.  Now...  One might be tempted to think that THIS is the reason all these Newbie Deficit Hawks keep popping up: that in just one year, someone's added 12% to the National Debt.  But is even THAT really unpreciedented?  The following is a chart of ever year in which a 20th Century President has added at least 10% to the National Debt, with Obama's projected 2010 deficit highlighted:

So, as you can see it is not all that unheard of for a President to "break the ceiling" by a pretty wide margin.  Now... Right off the bat, we can give Wilson a break due to World War I, Roosevelt a break for World War II and the Great Depression and, yes, to be "fair and ballanced" Hoover gets a break for having to deal with the Great Depression as well.  What's more, I don't even really fault George W. Bush for his huge defict (basically as big as Obama's) seeing as how he had the whole Mortgage Crisis / Great Recession to deal with, and it goes without saying that a good portion of Obama's deficit is also due to the continuing fallout, and a continuation of many of the same policies. (You just can fix a $1.5T deficit in one year without DESTROYING your economy!) The one that really jumps out at me though is 1986.  How the hell does Ronald Reagan (or his present-day idolizers) justify his being on this list in 1986?! I REMEMBER 1986 and the biggest news-story of the year was a baseball going between some guy's legs! Did he fight a World War or confront a Global economic disataer? In 1986?!  Christ, if he did, I sure as hell don't remember it!

So when it comes to deficits, you should remember that not all deficits are created equal, and that some are more unavoidable than others and others still are more justifiable.  I'm not saying it's right, just food for thought.  But don't be so quick to accept everything the media tells you: They've been covering for the Right for DECADES now.