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Using absolute $$ of deficits or anything other than percentages of increase of debt to concurrent period's GDP is nonsensical and is a case of Denominator Blindness Effect (aka ratio bias).
For example, in www.us-debt-clock.com - U.S. National Debt by President, from 1897 **:
Using $$ will obviously heavily skew the highest numbers to recent years, due to cumulative inflation... but highest %%, by far, was by FDR in 1930s Great Depression.
** Presidents share fiscal authority with Congress, and totals are affected by inherited budgets, recessions, wars, emergencies, tax policy, and interest costs.
#53 | Posted by Danforth at 2026-09-30 05:32 PM
Tell us: what happened to that surplus?
1. Ah, the "good old days" of gov't shutdowns and CRs... When Clinton lost Congress in 1994, he proclaimed "The era of big government is over!", then vetoed the "spending cuts + lower tax rates" balanced budget in 1995. The consequent CRs severely cut down spending (to 1.3% of GDP in 1996 and 0.3% in 1997)...
2. ... as we entered the era of "irrational exuberance" (Fed Chair Alan Greenspan in 1996) leading up to Internet Bubble and much higher government revenues from capital gains.
3. Finally, in 1997, Clinton-Gingrich-Lott budget deal cut both tax rates and spending, for $204B net spending cuts, including $77B from defense and $61B nondefense discretionary savings due to "peace dividend" :
(budgetcounsel.com (page 5) - Bipartisan Budget Agreement May 15, 1997 - PDF)
Nominal budget surpluses "under Clinton+GOP Congress" (real debt was still increasing, due to SS borrowing and off-budget items) started immediately, in fiscal 1998 and continued into fiscal 2001, when the US had to start dealing with the aftermath of both 2000 horrible burst bubble recession and 9/11.
BTW, after deficit rising to 1.4%, 3.3%, 3.4% of GDP in fiscal 2002-2004 (9/11 + Afghanistan + Iraq wars) it dropped to 2.4%, 1.8%, 1.1% in 2005-2007, and only rose to 3.1% in 2008 and 9.8% in 2009 as a result of GFC's market meltdown / tax revenues collapse and necessary Ben Bernanke'a liquidity injection plan (TARP), including $750B+ TARP loans, which were paid back to Treasury (with interest) by the banks "under Obama", so he was credited with that "revenue."
Obama, similar to Clinton, acknowledged "shellacking" after 2010 elections, when his 2010-2011 budgets failed to cut the deficits, but eventually agreed to spending and tax rates cuts, in 2012.
Obama's (and GOP Congress from fiscal 2012) deficits in fiscal 2010-2017:
8.6%, (GFC) 8.3%, 6.6%, 4.0%, 2.8%, 2.4%, 3.1%, 3.4% (8yrs = 39.2% of GDP)
Bush-43 deficits in fiscal 2002-2009:
1.4%(bubble burst + 9/11), 3.3%, 3.4%, 2.4%, 1.8%, 1.1%, 3.1%, 9.8%/GFC (8yrs = 26.3% of GDP)
These are truly comparable numbers.
In 1964 LBJ signed into law so-called "Kennedy-Johnson" Tax Reduction Act, the largest tax cut in U.S. history until 1981 - to stimulate the sluggish economy ("taxes... drag on economy, private sector") - yet in fiscal 1965 and 1966 tax revenues increased.
www.cambridge.org - The Kennedy " Johnson Tax Cut of 1964, the Defeat of Keynes, and Comprehensive Tax Reform in the United States.
www.coolidgereview.com - JFK Tax Cut ***
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#6 | Posted by Derek_Wildstar at 2026-10-22 12:34 PM
Conservatives want *Russia* to win a war against a western-leaning country. Russia!
Not "conservatives" - MAGA cult, which are different species. "Conservatives" today, like George Will, who write op-eds for WaPo, WSJ and individual or syndicated blogs, are "never-Trump" Republicans who keep GOP affiliation to vote in primaries, and many who became "independent" for now.
MAGA is getting ever thinner as cultists are starting to feel and see the effects of his idiotic policies, character, corruption and treachery, on display every single day that is becoming difficult to ignore, even what they originally thought was for "the greater good." MAGA cultists are the ones who are still willing to call themselves "Republicans" when reached by the pollsters - that's how he can get support of 90+% of 'Republicans' by some pollsters - typical polls (adjusted for 'party balance') measure the segment's intensity of opinion, not the overall quantity of support.
How the heck did this happen? They now prefer authoritarian dictatorships over democracy.
Look who they worship - Trump is MAGA, as he himself said. So whatever/whomever they think Trump "likes" or kowtows to - that day - they like. And if he doesn't "like" that/them another day - they don't like and they "never" liked that/them. It's the nature of the cult.
So they think that Trump "likes" Putin and wants to "re-integrate" Russia back into the G8/G20 world of political and economic markets as a member in good standing (that was Putin's idea) and he couldn't care less if Ukraine disappeared from the map (that's also Putin's idea).
#10 | Posted by Hughmass at 2026-10-23 07:07 AM
I strongly suspect one of the darkest secrets of this idiotic Trump administration is that he makes very few decisions...
Exactly the opposite, he actually does make most of the decisions, and the people he hired in his second go-round are not nearly as competent, accomplished in their fields and independent as his first admin - these are losers and bootlickers, mostly from the media world or nepo babies, who wouldn't be anywhere near their positions in any other administration, and they are there to do whatever he wants (which is "fight, fight, fight" or suggesting "deals" he can make).
Unfortunately (for all of us), Trump has proven to have an inimitable talent of not just coming up with idiotic ideas/decisions, but also unique ability of executing them in the most idiotic way possible.
...he is as Reagan was during Reagan's second term, being paid to give speeches and let the "grownups" run things from the darkness.
Not even close, Reagan didn't make any paid speeches during his presidency (his $1M speech in Japan was almost a year after he was out of the office), and he was in charge and making his own decisions until Bush's 1988 campaign was in full speed, e.g., he several times dismissed concerns of his writers and changed a good portion of the 1987 speech at the Brandenburg Gate, including adding famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"
helpdementia.com - Reagan's Alzheimer's Timeline
|------- ... Reagan showed no signs of dementia while serving as president (he left office in 1989 and wasn't diagnosed until five years later. -------|
The problem with Trump is not that he is losing memory, it's his low character and diminished mental capacity ("personality disorder") throughout his entire personal, business and political lives.
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