FROM A CONCERNED CITIZEN / PARENT: Sources: White House Documents - Historical Tables, and U.S. Department of the Treasury Historical Debt Tables and Interest Expense Table

On Inauguration Day 2001, President Bush inherited a $236 Billion surplus from President Clinton and then eight years later handed President Obama a projected $1.3 Trillion deficit for Fiscal Year 2009 and the worst recession since the Great Depression. Under Bush, Republicans passed large tax cuts that were 100% funded by borrowed money while the country was fighting two wars that were also 100% funded by borrowing. They ran up huge National Debt, and drastically expanded the Federal Government. Now the Republicans are blaming the $1.4 Trillion FY2009 deficit on President Obama even though over 90% of the deficit was handed to him by the Bush administration and the U.S. economy slipped into the worst crisis in 6 decades under Republicans' watch.



Here's something to think about:
• When a politician hands you a tax cut and then charges the entire amount to the nation’s credit card, is it really a tax cut, or debt + interest to be taken out of your future paychecks?
• Looking at the records, who still believes that borrowing money to fund large tax cuts will stimulate the economy to grow so much so that the nation will grow itself out of debt? If that policy is working, we should see both the deficits and the debt-to-GDP percentages decrease, not increase. What sounds too good to be true may, in fact, be too good to be true!

It is a historical fact that both the Great Depression and the current Global Financial Crisis, the worst since the Great Depression, happened after the Federal Government was dominated by the Republican Party for 6 straight years or longer. The table below provides a rather clear historical perspective as to what happened to that party's political fortune after the Great Crash of 1929 when it did too little too late to rescue the economy, allowing a deep recession to snowball into the Great Depression. Can we the citizens of the United States afford to let history repeat itself this time?

Actions and records speak louder than political spins and partisan attacks so FACT CHECK, STAY INFORMED, and VOTE SMART!


U.S. Government figures in millions of dollars:

SOURCE P21-22 Historical Tables   Historical Debt Tables   P24-25 Historical Tables        
YEAR SURPLUS or DEFICIT as a % of GDP NATIONAL DEBT as a % of GDP GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PRESIDENT S H MAJOR ECONOMIC EVENT
1901 63 0.28% 2,143 9.57% 22,400 McKinley R R  
1902 77 0.32% 2,158 8.92% 24,200 R R R  
1903 45 0.17% 2,202 8.47% 26,000 R R R  
1904 -43 -0.17% 2,264 8.78% 25,800 R R R  
1905 -23 -0.08% 2,274 7.87% 28,900 R R R  
1906 25 0.08% 2,337 7.56% 30,900 R R R  
1907 87 0.26% 2,457 7.25% 33,900 R R R Contraction
1908 -57 -0.19% 2,626 8.70% 30,200 T. Roosevelt R R  
1909 -89 -0.28% 2,639 8.20% 32,200 R R R  
1910 -18 -0.05% 2,652 7.94% 33,400 R R R  
1911 11 0.03% 2,765 8.06% 34,300 R R D  
1912 3 0.01% 2,868 7.67% 37,400 Taft R D  
1913 -1 0.00% 2,916 7.46% 39,100 D D D  
1914 -1 0.00% 2,912 7.98% 36,500 D D D Start of World War I
1915 -63 -0.16% 3,058 7.90% 38,700 D D D  
1916 48 0.10% 3,609 7.28% 49,600 D D D  
1917 -853 -1.43% 5,717 9.58% 59,700 D D R  
1918 -9,032 -11.92% 14,592 19.25% 75,800 D D R End of World War I. Start of Recession
1919 -13,363 -17.07% 27,390 34.98% 78,300 D R R  
1920 291 0.33% 25,952 29.36% 88,400 Wilson R R  
1921 509 0.69% 23,977 32.58% 73,600 R R R End of Recession
1922 736 1.00% 22,963 31.28% 73,400 R R R  
1923 713 0.83% 22,349 26.17% 85,400 Harding R R  
1924 963 1.11% 21,250 24.45% 86,900 R R R  
1925 717 0.79% 20,516 22.64% 90,600 R R R  
1926 865 0.89% 19,643 20.27% 96,900 R R R  
1927 1,155 1.21% 18,511 19.38% 95,500 R R R  
1928 939 0.96% 17,604 18.07% 97,400 Coolidge R R  
1929 734 0.71% 16,931 16.34% 103,600 R R R Start of Great Depression
1930 738 0.76% 16,185 16.62% 97,400 R R R  
1931 -462 -0.55% 16,801 20.05% 83,800 R R D  
1932 -2,735 -4.05% 19,487 28.83% 67,600 Hoover R D  
1933 -2,602 -4.52% 22,538 39.13% 57,600 D D D  
1934 -3,586 -5.86% 27,053 44.20% 61,200 D D D  
1935 -2,803 -4.03% 28,700 41.24% 69,600 D D D  
1936 -4,304 -5.48% 33,778 43.03% 78,500 D D D  
1937 -2,193 -2.50% 36,424 41.49% 87,800 D D D  
1938 -89 -0.10% 37,164 41.76% 89,000 D D D  
1939 -2,846 -3.19% 40,439 45.39% 89,100 D D D Start of WW II. End of Great Depression
1940 -2,920 -3.02% 42,967 44.39% 96,800 D D D  
1941 -4,941 -4.33% 48,961 42.91% 114,100 D D D Pearl Harbor
1942 -20,503 -14.21% 72,422 50.19% 144,300 D D D  
1943 -54,554 -30.26% 136,696 75.82% 180,300 D D D  
1944 -47,557 -22.73% 201,003 96.08% 209,200 D D D  
1945 47,553 21.48% 258,682 116.84% 221,400 F.D.Roosevelt D D End of World War II
1946 -15,936 -7.16% 269,442 120.99% 222,700 D D D  
1947 4,018 1.72% 258,286 110.76% 233,200 D R R  
1948 11,796 4.61% 252,292 98.55% 256,000 D R R  
1949 580 0.21% 252,770 93.24% 271,100 D D D  
1950 -3,119 -1.14% 257,357 94.27% 273,000 D D D Start of Korean War
1951 6,102 1.90% 255,221 79.61% 320,600 D D D  
1952 -1,519 -0.44% 259,105 74.33% 348,600 Truman D D  
1953 -6,493 -1.74% 266,071 71.35% 372,900 R R R End of Korean War. Recession
1954 -1,154 -0.31% 271,259 71.89% 377,300 R R R  
1955 -2,993 -0.76% 274,374 69.53% 394,600 R D D  
1956 3,947 0.92% 272,750 63.85% 427,200 R D D  
1957 3,412 0.76% 270,527 60.08% 450,300 R D D Recession
1958 -2,769 -0.60% 276,343 60.01% 460,500 R D D  
1959 -12,849 -2.61% 284,705 57.93% 491,500 R D D  
1960 301 0.06% 286,330 55.29% 517,900 Eisenhower D D Start of Vietnam Involvement. Recession
1961 -3,335 -0.63% 288,970 54.44% 530,800 D D D  
1962 -7,146 -1.26% 298,200 52.54% 567,600 D D D  
1963 -4,756 -0.79% 305,859 51.09% 598,700 Kennedy D D  
1964 -5,915 -0.92% 311,712 48.67% 640,400 D D D  
1965 -1,411 -0.21% 317,273 46.18% 687,100 D D D Major US Deployment in Vietnam
1966 -3,698 -0.49% 319,907 42.49% 752,900 D D D  
1967 -8,643 -1.06% 362,220 44.62% 811,800 D D D  
1968 -25,161 -2.90% 347,578 40.11% 866,600 Johnson D D  
1969 3,242 0.34% 353,720 37.29% 948,600 R D D  
1970 -2,842 -0.28% 370,918 36.64% 1,012,200 R D D  
1971 -23,033 -2.13% 398,129 36.87% 1,079,900 R D D  
1972 -23,373 -1.98% 427,260 36.26% 1,178,300 R D D  
1973 -14,908 -1.14% 458,141 35.04% 1,307,600 R D D Start of Oil Crisis
1974 -6,135 -0.43% 475,059 33.01% 1,439,300 Nixon D D  
1975 -53,242 -3.41% 533,189 34.16% 1,560,700 R D D End of Vietnam War. End of Oil Crisis
1976 -73,732 -4.25% 620,433 35.73% 1,736,500 Ford D D  
1977 -53,659 -2.72% 698,840 35.40% 1,974,300 D D D  
1978 -59,185 -2.67% 771,544 34.80% 2,217,000 D D D  
1979 -40,726 -1.63% 826,519 33.05% 2,500,700 D D D  
1980 -73,830 -2.71% 907,701 33.29% 2,726,700 Carter D D Start of Recession
1981 -78,968 -2.59% 997,855 32.67% 3,054,700 R R D  
1982 -127,977 -3.97% 1,142,034 35.38% 3,227,600 R R D End of Recession
1983 -207,802 -6.04% 1,377,210 40.03% 3,440,700 R R D  
1984 -185,367 -4.83% 1,572,266 40.94% 3,840,200 R R D  
1985 -212,308 -5.13% 1,823,103 44.02% 4,141,500 R R D  
1986 -221,227 -5.01% 2,125,302 48.17% 4,412,400 R R D  
1987 -149,730 -3.22% 2,350,276 50.58% 4,647,100 R D D  
1988 -155,178 -3.10% 2,602,337 51.96% 5,008,600 Reagan D D  
1989 -152,639 -2.83% 2,857,430 52.91% 5,400,500 R D D  
1990 -221,036 -3.85% 3,233,313 56.37% 5,735,400 R D D  
1991 -269,238 -4.54% 3,665,303 61.76% 5,935,100 R D D Gulf War. Recession
1992 -290,321 -4.65% 4,064,620 65.14% 6,239,900 Bush D D  
1993 -255,051 -3.88% 4,411,488 67.09% 6,575,500 D D D  
1994 -203,186 -2.92% 4,692,749 67.41% 6,961,300 D D D  
1995 -163,952 -2.24% 4,973,982 67.90% 7,325,800 D R R  
1996 -107,431 -1.40% 5,224,810 67.91% 7,694,100 D R R  
1997 -21,884 -0.27% 5,413,146 66.16% 8,182,400 D R R  
1998 69,270 0.80% 5,526,193 64.05% 8,627,900 D R R  
1999 125,610 1.38% 5,656,270 61.98% 9,125,300 D R R  
2000 236,241 2.43% 5,674,178 58.44% 9,709,800 Clinton R R  
2001 128,236 1.27% 5,807,463 57.74% 10,057,900 R B R 911. Contraction
2002 -157,758 -1.52% 6,228,235 60.02% 10,377,400 R D R Start of Afghan War
2003 -377,585 -3.49% 6,783,231 62.76% 10,808,600 R R R Start of Iraq War
2004 -412,727 -3.59% 7,379,052 64.17% 11,499,900 R R R  
2005 -318,346 -2.60% 7,932,709 64.82% 12,237,900 R R R  
2006 -248,181 -1.91% 8,506,973 65.36% 13,015,500 R R R  
2007 -162,002 -1.19% 9,007,653 65.91% 13,667,500 R D D Start of Deep Recession
2008 -438,000 -3.06% 10,024,724 70.05% 14,311,500 Bush D D Start of Global Financial Crisis
2009 ’Äì1,412,686 -9.92% 11,909,829 83.65% 14,237,200 D D D  
2010           D D D  
2011           D      
2012           Obama      
YEAR SURPLUS or DEFICIT as a % of GDP NATIONAL DEBT as a % of GDP GROSS DOMESTIC PRODUCT PRESIDENT S H MAJOR ECONOMIC EVENT
 
 

Copyright © 2010 Albert Yu. All rights reserved.