Here are the facts. As I've told you on another thread, Presidents don't create deficits and debt, Congress does...by law and by our Constitution. However, if you insist on comparing Presidents in this fashion, then let's talk purely of the facts. By the end of Obama's Presidency, we had accumulated $19.947 Trillion in debt. Of that, we can break the debt added by President down as follows:
* Regan added $1.694 Trillion
* Bush Sr. added $1.586 Trillion
* Clinton added $1.540 Trillion
* Bush Jr. added $4.899 Trillion
* Obama added $9.320 Trillion
Obama added more debt than all other Presidents combined...in the entire history of the United States. So which is worse, Democratic Presidents or Republicans for adding debt? Well, if we break all of our debt down just in the time since Reagan was elected (ignoring the $908B created prior to Reagan):
* Republicans added $8.179 Trillion, 43%
* Democrats added $10.860 Trillion, 57%
Democrats are slightly bigger spenders, but not by much, so that doesn't give me any comfort at all. So what did all that debt buy us? Let's examine Total Nonfarm Employment, seasonally adjusted:
* Reagan added 16.102 million employed (2.1% annualized)
* Bush Sr. added 2.592 million employed (0.6% annualized)
* Clinton added 22.744 million employed (2.4% annualized)
* Bush Jr. added 1.584 million employed (0.1% annualized)
* Obama added 11.488 million employed (1.0% annualized)
So the big jobs Presidents were Clinton and Reagan. The losers were the Bush family.
Now for the real test. How much did each of those jobs cost for the increase in debt by each President?
* Reagan paid $0.11 per job created
* Bush Sr. paid $0.61 per job created
* Clinton paid $0.07 per job created
* Bush Jr. paid $3.09 per job created
* Obama paid $0.81 per job created
Clinton and Reagan again are the big winners for the American people. The biggest loser was Bush Jr. So in summary, your vilification of Reagan is a bit off the mark, both in terms of the actual metrics and in terms of the fact that Congress is empowered by the Constitution to manage our country's finances and monetary policy, not the President. Congress is derelict and has been for a very long time. That is where the root cause lies, although bad Presidents certainly don't help matters. |
