[Riot]

Originally Posted by joeydb

I think Dell's numbers are more accurate. But yes, you did counter with numbers of your own, rather than others who use an abbreviation for a crass figure of speech.

My dispute with your numbers was the "regular spending" qualifier. The total is all that matters - whether military, social, stimulus, etc is irrelevant. The total overspending drives the yearly deficit, which then accumulate into the national debt.

My numbers didn't include what I said, above. I was using that to try to get Dell to separate it out by who incurred what debt. And they were not "created" by me.

The one set Dell posted is our national debt, separated by time. The two sets I posted is our national debt, separated by the President who incurred it. Which is the whole point, if one is going to accuse Obama of raising the national debt more than Bush W. That is simply false.

Here it is. Our political viewpoints don't matter, here is our national debt by the President that incurred it. And it has clearly been Republican Presidents from Reagan onward. Not Democratic. (and the congressional makeup is listed, too) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nationa...idential_terms

Economic commentators have noted a pattern between changes in US national debt and US presidential terms over the last few decades. These commentators observe that changes in US national debt have been correlated with the political ideology of the ruling administration.

Economist Mike Kimel notes that the last five Democratic Presidents (Clinton, Carter, LBJ, JFK, and Truman) all reduced public debt as a share of GDP, while the last four Republican Presidents (GW Bush, GHW Bush, Reagan, and Ford) all oversaw an increase in the country’s indebtedness.[1]

Economic historian J. Bradford DeLong observes a contrast not so much between Republicans and Democrats, but between Democrats and "old-style Republicans (Eisenhower and Nixon)" on one hand (decreasing debt), and "new-style Republicans" on the other (increasing debt).[2]

Similarly, Republican David Stockman, director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, as op-ed contributor to the New York Times blamed the "ideological tax-cutters" of the Reagan administration for the increase of national debt during the 1980s.[3]

I don't know why you "think" Dell's numbers are more accurate. I didn't even see a reference posted as to where he got them. My two sets were made separately, by different organizations, but both agree, both are referenced, and are CBO data.

But the point is this: the Republican meme that the GOP is "fiscally responsible", while the Democrats are "big spenders", is obviously and historically false.