One of the primary teabagger "criticisms" of Obama is the current Federal Deficit. Teabaggers argue the POTUS is spending recklessly and we need to get back to a conservative budget. The typical teabagger will often cite Ronald Reagan as an example of a president who represented their fiscally conservative viewpoint. Of course anyone who has any knowledge of recent U.S. history knows this to be an insane position. However, I am continuously amazed at the level of ignorance on display from the right wing. So for everyone’s sake, I threw together a couple graphs to provide the teabagger in your life with a little fiscal history.
The first graph displays our national debt as a % of GDP since the Great Depression.
Source: usgovernmentspending.com
The obvious story is the consistent shrinking of the debt until 1980/1981 when the Reagan administration was successful in both increasing government spending and reducing taxes for the wealthy. Bush continues to pile onto the debt, and then Clinton starts to get a handle on it, mainly by reducing government spending. W. Bush comes along, passes tax cuts for the wealthy again (bringing the top tax bracket rates to dangerously low levels), and increases spending, both on the military and domestic programs.
What I often like to point out to Republican deficit hawks is that every Democratic president since Roosevelt has reduced the federal debt, while every Republican president since Nixon has increased it. There should be no debate about which party takes fiscal responsibility seriously.
The second graph shows the Federal Budget Deficit as a % of GDP.
Source: usgovernmentspending.com
It tells a similar story. Clinton turned Reagan and Bush's huge deficit into a sizable surplus, which W. Bush promptly erased while creating the biggest deficit since the Great Depression.
This is not to say increasing the deficit is necessarily bad. Often times it is critical to temporarily stimulate the economy (as is the case right now). However, while Democrats have increased deficit spending in the past and continue to do so now, history shows they understand the need to bring it back under control relatively quickly, and have always managed to do so. This is the critical difference. Neither Reagan nor W. Bush had a plan to bring the deficit under control. They both attempted to permanently decrease tax revenue (mainly from the highest tax brackets) and increase deficit spending at times when it was not critical to do so. Next year the right wing will be fighting tooth and nail to keep the Bush tax cuts in place while simultaneously screaming about the deficit.
If you know any of these screamers, you might want to sit down and review the fiscal history of this country. Tell them not to freak out. The adults are in charge again.