The conventional wisdom is that divided government results in greater fiscal prudence. I used to believe that until very recently, when I started looking into the matter. Look at the chart I posted and the composition of the government during that chart. Conventional wisdom for me was turned upside down.
Let's see:
The Democrats had control of the House of Representatives from 1955 till 1995.
The Democrats also had control of the Senate from 1955 till 1995.
But what happened during those years? The huge increases in national debt as a percent of GDP occurred during the Reagan and George Bush years, when we had a split government!
During the famous LBJ years the Democrats had overwhelming control of Congress, we were fighting the Vietnam war with three times more troops than now abroad, and LBJ was spending heavily on newly enacted social programs, yet the national debt as a percent of GDP was dropping
Finally, Clinton's national debt reductions were achieved NOT because of split government from 1995 to the end of his term but because he managed to enact the tax increases of 1993 while the Democrats had control of both branches of government! Those tax increases were bitterly attacked by the Republicans as "the greatest tax increase in history", and were actually a big factor in the Gingrich takeover of Congress in 1995. However, as you can see from the graph, that tax increase was instrumental in getting the debt back to a downward slope, for the first time since Reagan took over in 1981.
The conclusion for me is inescapable: the contention that split government results in prudent spending and a reduction in debt as a percent of GDP is a myth, following the Reagan revolution. Republican Presidents with a Democratic Congress block tax increases, push large defense increases, while largely being ineffective in blocking social spending increases -- in fact, they are buying large defense increases with social spending increases, the worst of both worlds. Democratic Presidents with Democratic Congresses, increase taxes, moderate defense spending, except in case of war, and increase social spending. So, net net, Democratic control reduces national debt as a percent of GDP.
Here is a link that lists Senate composition:
senate.gov
Here is a link about the House of Representatives, including which parties controlled over the years:
en.wikipedia.org
And here is the smoking gun:
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