2 ms·
Maybe you mean something different, but not every recent president has "run an increasing deficit" Reagan: +74B Bush: +103B Clinton: -382B Bush: +1.5T Obama: -7
by sbohacek 16d ago
Maybe you mean something different, but not every recent president has "run an increasing deficit"
Reagan: +74B
Bush: +103B
Clinton: -382B
Bush: +1.5T
Obama: -747B
Trump: +2.1T
Biden: -1T
Where change in deficit is the final budget deficit - starting budget deficit
So, every Republican president runs an increasing deficit and every Democrat president runs a decreasing deficit.
- jameslk 16d agoCongress is the one that largely makes the fiscal policy choices. For example, during Clinton’s second term when the deficit was almost eliminated (some claim there was a surplus, but there wasn’t because of social security liabilities), you had a republican controlled congress who were pushing for cuts and fiscal tightening: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contract_with_America
- cbolton 16d agoThe republican program was in large part vetoed by Clinton though and the spending cuts that passed were largely offset by the tax cuts. From what I read the reduction in deficit is mostly due to the dot-com boom, helped with the "deficit reduction act" of 1993 that was pushed by Clinton and happened to hike taxes at the right time to tax the boom.