The increases in 2008 and 2009 dwarf anything Johnson could have imagined in his wildest socialist dreams. But Johnson will have the last laugh, because it is his programs that will make up the biggest part of the debt growth in the future.
True.
But once you factor in inflation ($100 in 1968 = $612 in 2008), population growth (+50%), worker productivity (close to +100%), and median income (inflation adjusted close to +100%), the difference per capita is not huge.
Plus, Bush had some epochal challenges.
The most expensive terrorist attack in world history.
The most expensive natural disaster in US history (Katrina).
And, adjusted for inflation, the most expensive oil prices since the 19th Century.
But, that said, his “Compassionate Conservatism” and the Iraq War certainly added to those record deficits.