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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: RMF who wrote (849973)4/27/2015 2:50:39 PM
From: TimF  Read Replies (1) of 1576816
 
Well, then let's say he only TRIPLED our national debt.

You love focusing on that specific measurement, when its one of the least useful ways to measure increases in debt.

Which is not to say that the debt didn't increase a lot when Reagan was president. You can blame him, you can blame congress, or whatever but clearly there was a big debt and deficit problem when Reagan was president. But percentage increase of the debt is a lousy way to measure it. If it was a dollar then became a billion dollars it would be a a much higher percentage increase then a mere tripling but the debt would be low and manageable. If the debt was twenty trillion, and increased to 21, then the increase would be only 5% but would still be an actual problem.

When your looking at the politicians at a particular time, it makes more sense to focus on the deficit rather then the debt. The deficit is how much they are increasing the debt, the other parts of the debt aren't their fault.

The best way to measure the burden of that deficit is percentage of GDP. A much larger economy can easily support a much higher real debt and real deficits than a smaller economy, and since both the debt, the deficit, and the economy are measured in the same dollars, inflation isn't an issue to worry about. (Unlike "when debt doubles or triples or increases by some other percentage)
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