Spreadsheet of National Debt by President, Sentate, and House Political Party (online viewable)

CodeToad ^ | 10-8-2008 | Self

[CodeToad]

I put together a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that shows the national debt, year by year, showing the political party of the President, Senate, and House. It shows the year, debt, and percent change, with a summation by party.

It is available for online viewing and download from Google Docs.

[CodeToad]

It was difficult to say what party was in office prior to 1855 as there were significant changes to the parties, but it is still revealing as to who spends the most.

Scroll to the far right to see the summation.

In this election year with all the money being spent on the economy and pork, I thought it would be interesting data to review. If there are any errors in the spreadsheet, just let me know.

[DryFly]

It looks to me like the GOP has no room to complain about higher deficit spending. Reagan and Bush are two of the biggest offenders.

On the other hand, spending bills arise in the House so it is not entirely fair to lay the blame on the executive.

[microgood]

It shows cleary that our current President is the bar none king of deficit spending, and he did it mostly with a Republican Congress.

It takes all the individual tax filers west of the Mississippi just to pay the $480 billion annual interest on the debt.

[andymin]

Nice.

By the way, forgive my ignorance, but what are the delta %s (and deltas)?

[CodeToad]

Delta means the difference. So the “% delta” is the change.

[refermech]

To be fair you must remember we have been fighting a war against muslim extremists (I think they’re all pretty extreme)

[microgood]

To be fair you must remember we have been fighting a war against muslim extremists (I think they’re all pretty extreme)

I hear you, but it seems to be a Republican thing mainly. If you look at the Vietnam war, it went up a little under Johnson, then Nixon almost doubled it.

In addition, it was aggravated by Bush's Medicare Prescription Drug program and doubling the size of the Education spending.

If you have to go to war, you need to cut spending elsewhere. He did not.

[cincinnati65]

Um, who was the Democrat President in 1981?

[refermech]

True story, I think that in order for republicans to get their programs (like military spending and tax cuts) passed they have to go along with the democrats demand for social programs otherwise everything just dies in the senate. So we just end up with the whole enchilada as we say in NM. Nobody has the sense to say enough. It’s a weakness in the system and the president doesn’t have the balls to line item veto the social stuff. Dems would just crucify him.

[Reagan Man]

You touched on it. While its the Presidents budget, the House controls the pursestrings. In the 1980`s the Dems controlled the House.

In order to get funding for his 25% across the board income tax cuts and military buildup, Reagan had to compromise. Reagan gave the Dems limited increases as a percentage of annual spending on SocSec and other mandatory welfare state programs. Reagan did get serious reductions in discretionary spending. Overall spending as a percentage of GDP decreased 1% by Reagan’s final year in office.

With Bush43 things were different. The GOP controlled the Congress for most of the Bush Presidency. Bush and the GOP Congress passed into law, huge spending increases acrosss the board on Education, Transportation, Energy and Farming. Along with the biggest welfare state program addition since Medicare itself.

[CodeToad]

Thanks. Fixed it.

[papasmurf]

Don’t forget, Reagan inherited an economy much like we have now. As well, he had to completely rebuild our military.