Ok I'm a conservative, but doesn't this prove that the debt began exploding shortly after Reagan took office?

Question

THIS GRAPH NEEDS TO BE UPDATED TO CURRENT LEVELS DURING THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION! THE REAL DEBT IS NOW AT 13 TRILLION, 90% OF US GDP.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:USDebt.png

BEFORE READING THIS YOU MUST UNDERSTAND THAT DEMOCRATS RAISE TAXES, WHICH REDUCES THE NATIONAL DEBT....WELL UNTIL OBAMA.
You can clearly see the debt started rising when Regan took office, and continued to rise while Bush 1 was in office. I say the debt continued to rise for about 3 years of the Clinton administration until 1995 and then began to drop. When Bush took control it began to rise again, BUT NOT AS FAST AS DURING REGAN AND BUSH 1. I'm sure everyone can see where the recession started. The debt has not stopped rising since Obama took office, but could possibly go down once the tax hikes kick in.

Answer 1

Reagan raised the debt by building up the military. He did so, because he knew that the Soviet Union's economy would collapse by trying to keep up with our spending. (which it did)

He also ran up the debt, to keep the Democratic Congress from spending on social programs. (This is when Democrats still cared about fiscal responsibility.)

So, yes it went up, but there were a lot of politics involved.

Answer 2

First, it's not 90% of GDP, YET. It's 60-65% now, but will reach 90% by 2020 if the current budget stays as projected.

Raising taxes has never reduced the national debt. If that were the case, the national debt wouldn't have "exploded" shortly after Reagan took office. Reagan also had to rebuild the military after 4 years of Jimmy "the worthless one" Carter.

Now, what you need to realize is this: Which party had control of the purse strings during Reagan and Bush 1? The Democrats. Which party had control of the purse strings during Clinton's administration? The Republicans. The national debt didn't start going out of control until 2007, and who controlled the purse strings since 2007? The Democrats.

The tax hikes will NOT increase revenue to the treasury. They NEVER have, that's why Kennedy cut taxes to jump start the economy. That's why Bush II did it, and it worked until government spending got completely out of control. The tax hikes will stop investments, will force jobs to other countries, and will result in people finding "creative" ways to avoid huge tax bills. This will result in another recession. Every time that taxes have increased, revenue to the treasury has been reduced. Every time taxes have been cut, job growth has increased and revenue to the treasury has increased.

Answer 3

National Debt When Jimmy Carter started: $660 billion.



Debt added during Carter's four years: $337 billion



Debt added during Ronald Reagan's eight years: $1.6 trillion



Debt added during George H. W. Bush's four years: $1.6 trillion



Debt added during Bill Clinton's eight years: $1.5 trillion



Debt added during George W. Bush's eight years: $5.5 trillion.



Portion of the $10.5 trillion added to the national debt during the past 32 years that came during Republican presidencies: $8.7 trillion.



Percentage of that $8.7 trillion added during George W. Bush's two terms: 63%.



2 Wars, Medicare D = UNFUNDED = DEBT / DEFICIT –



2 Financial Recessions/Meltdowns



BP/Gulf Oil Crisis – lack of regulation/oversight



GOP Congress 1994-2006

Bush POTUS 2000-2008



George W. Bush did NOT veto 1 single piece of SPENDING legislation in 8 years –



http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3036



ALWAYS VOTE SMART, NOT BLINDLY…

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Answer 4

FLSwampBoy has the best answer.