God and Country
by PHIL JONES
Ever since Barack Obama was elected president, the Republican Party has gotten national debt religion. They beg to remind us at every turn that it is immoral to saddle our children and grandchildren with debts. And you know what? They are right. So it is only fitting that we should examine the history of the national debt, to determine which major party is the more immoral of the two.
On Sept. 30, 1980, the national debt stood at $908 billion (rounded to the nearest billion). During Jimmy Carter’s last year in office, the debt had increased by $81 billion. In his eight years in office, Ronald Reagan ran up an additional $1.695 trillion in debt. Keep in mind that a trillion is a thousand times as much as a billion. The national debt nearly tripled under Ronald Wilson Reagan.
It is tempting to say that Ronnie Reagan’s fiscal immorality score is 1.695 trillion (that’s 1,695, followed by 9 zeroes). But that is not entirely fair to Mr. Reagan, since Carter left him saddled with an annual deficit of $81 billion in his last year in office (that’s 81, followed by 9 zeroes). Each president should be scored on the change he made, and not be held accountable for the level of fiscal irresponsibility he inherited from the previous administration.So, subtracting out $81.2 billion per year for the eight years of Reagan’s administration, Ronnie was fiscally immoral to the tune of $1.045 trillion, an average of $130 billion per year worse than his predecessor. So his fiscal morality score is negative $130 billion.
Following similar reasoning, George H. W. (“Poppy”) Bush ran up an additional $1.462 trillion, and increased the national debt by another 56 percent. But the increase in deficit spending by Poppy Bush was “only” $454.3 billion more than the levels established by the Reagan Administration. Nevertheless, he accomplished this in just four years, so his fiscal morality score is negative $114 billion.
William Jefferson (“Slick Willie”) Clinton inherited an annual budget deficit of $399 billion and a national debt of $4.065 trillion. Clinton ran up an additional $1.609 trillion in debt in his eight years in office, and increased the national debt by another 40 percent. However, compared to the deficit levels he inherited from Poppy Bush, Slick Willie actually shrank the deficit substantially. In his final year in office, Clinton ran a sizable operating surplus, but the interest on the national debt was bigger than the surplus, so the national debt still went up by $18 billion. All told, Clinton reduced the deficit by $1.585 trillion dollars. Divided over the eight years of his administration, Clinton turns out to have been by far the most fiscally moral president in the last 30 years of American history, with a score of positive $198 billion per year better than his predecessor.
Next came George H. W. (“Shrub”) Bush. He inherited an annual budget deficit of $18 billion, and a national debt of $5.674 trillion. Shrub ran up an additional $4.351 trillion in debt, and the national debt grew by another 77 percent on his watch.
Compared to his predecessor, this Bush increased the deficit by $4.207 trillion over the eight years of his presidency. So his fiscal morality score is an all-time record low of negative $526 billion per year.
Barack (“Obama”) Obama inherited an annual budget deficit of $1.02 trillion dollars and a national debt of $10.025 trillion. He has only been in office two years, so the jury is still out, and it is not fair to draw the bottom line yet on his fiscal morality or immorality. So far, however, he has run up an additional $3.537 trillion and increased the national debt by another 35 percent. Of this, $1.503 trillion is spending over and above the deficits he inherited from Shrub. Thus, even when you subtract out the record-setting fiscal immorality of his predecessor, Obama is on a course to set a new all-time low of his own. He has thus far averaged negative $751 billion per year to the deficit, compared to his predecessor.
Adding it all up, Republicans have been in the White House for 20 of the past 30 years. Republican presidents have run up additional deficits of $5.706 trillion, over and above the levels established by their predecessors, for an aggregate fiscal morality score of negative $285 billion per year.
Democrats have been in the White House for 10 years. Democratic presidents have shrunk the deficit by $82 billion, compared to their predecessors, for an aggregate fiscal morality score of positive $8 billion per year. So if we measure morality by fiscal responsibility, as the Republicans insist – and remember, they are right – the Democrats are far more moral than the Republicans, by a whopping $293 billion per year.
Both parties have been fiscally irresponsible, and President Obama has so far taken the cake. But the jury is out on his presidency as a whole. The only president in the last 30 years who can be said to have been fiscally moral is Bill Clinton, and even he added 40 percent to the national debt. By far the most immoral president of the past 30 years was Bush Junior. Character counts,huh?
God save the United States of America from the fiscal immorality of both major parties.
