Meant to post this ealier...

Someone posted this infographic on MMFA lasty week, and I had meant to post it here and forgot about it until now. It comes from [IMHO HoF'er] Newscorpse and it serves as a pretty handy reference should you find yourself in a debate with any C-Students about taxes or economics. Please feel free to download it and pass it on.

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.

So... Who's REALLY responsible for all our debt?

I'd like to take one more look at the Federal Deficit and the National Debt, before going back to health care for a few posts.  I made up the follow Pie-Chart, to show which administration's contributed the most to the National Debt.  I'll explain some of my assumptions, and methodology, and then I'd like to note a few bits of information that I took away from it.

This is through the projected end to FY2010, and is in 2010 dollars. The first point that might need explaining is "FDR." Since the National Debt did not appreciably change between WWII and 1982, and as a concession to our conservtaive friends, I attributed all of the debt accumulated prior to Ronald Reagen to Franklin Roosevelt. I could just as well have said Harry Truman, or anyone else really, since this was where every President since Roosevelt decided to leave the National Debt, so whatever... We'll just call it "FDR."

So, as to my methodology... I got the overall National Debt, by year, from the Treasury Department's Website. For each year, I adjusted for inflation using E.T.'s Inflation Chart. THAT only went to 2008, so I assumed 3% inflation for 2009 and adjusted all the numbers accordingly. So, taking the overall debt in 1981 and calling it "FDR" I looked at the change from year to year and calculated the deficit or surplus (in 2010 dollars.) So the combined deficits from 1982 to 1989 were attributed to President Reagan, 1990 to 1993 to the first President Bush... you get the idea... to determine what each Administation was responsible for since Reagan took office. (And remember, since the debt level in 1981 was within 2.2% of what it was in 1947, there's no point in talking about anyone in the intervening years. Hence I've lumped it ALL into "FDR." (And then I added in, the recently projected $1.6T deficit that is being projected for Obama in 2010.)

Now... right off the bat, I'll give the newly minted Deficit Hawks on the Right one point: It is a bit disconcerting that President Obama managed to accout for 11% of of the overall nation debt in just one year. I think it's celar to EVERYONE, not the least of whom is President Obama, that we cannot continue on THAT path. But consider this:

A full 66.6% of our current National Debt is attributable to Ronald Wilson Reagan, George Herbert Walker Bush, and George Walker Bush. Bill Clinton accounts for a scant 4%, and even with Obama's record-breaking deficit, all Democratic contribution COMBINED account for only a third of the overall debt.
Now... to anyone who points out that the Republicans had the presidency for 20 of the 28 year prior to 2009, all I have to say is this: That only means they had more opportunities to try and FIX the problem! Bill Clinton did more in 8 years to address the budget deficit and the National Debt than the Republicans did in 28!

And the only reason I find that amusing is that all the Deficit Hakws these days seem to come from RIGHT! As I've said before, if your concerned about the deficit, whatever you do: DON'T VOTE REPUBLICAN!