Source: Ezra Klein
James Fallows posts a
table created by Chuck Spinney that shows -- or attempts to show -- the
change in debt under different types of administrations. The basic
takeaway is that it's not just that Democrats tend to reduce the deficit
or Republicans increase it, but that it's specifically Republican
presidents who arise out of the post-Goldwater conservative movement who
increase it:
There's important information in there -- notably that tax cuts do,
indeed, increase the deficit. But to understand why deficits happen, I'd
direct people to this mega-chart that The Post's Alicia Parlapiano
made: It compares GDP growth, deficits and control of both the Congress
and the White House, and gives you a more comprehensive idea of what's
going on:
Basically, deficits happen when recessions happen. Anytime GDP
shrinks, deficits explode. Sustained growth, by contrast, tends to bring
the budget into balance. That's not to say policy doesn't matter. If
you put $4 trillion of tax cuts on the deficit, you need a whole lot of
growth to make that back up. But policy -- and even control of the White
House -- matters a lot less than the economy does.
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