USA has done more stuff for people than anybody ever

[Caskhades]

[CgDs]

[Caskhades]

[~]

I think it's interesting that some choose to compare the debt incurred during the Regan Administration to WWII, when we spent ourselves out of The Great Depression...

[CgDs]

[Caskhades]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[CgDs]

[CgDs]

[Captain Murphy]

[Captain Murphy]

[Colonel Sun]

[Ibrahim]

[Ibrahim]

[Colonel Sun]

[Caskhades]

CgDs,

I think you and Mr. P are so obsessed with defending the precious Reagan-was-a-true-hero Republican meme that you start shooting anytime someone mentions his Holy name. I am not interested in blaming Republicans or Democrats. I never heard people talk of the 80s as the "time of the 97th, 98th, 99th and 100th Congress," so I am using the standard way of calling the 81-89 period as the "Reagan Administration Years." And US debt/GDP has been rising since that time, with a short blip during 96-00 age (I now hesitate to dare call it "later Clinton years" out of fear you'll just lash out more). That is a fact, irrespective of the alternation of the two parties in the Presidency and Congress.

I was unaware that the idea that some people might be using "Reagan" as a time marker is so insulting to the memory of the saint. My contrite apologies.

[Ibrahim]

[CgDs]

[Colonel Sun]

[Colonel Sun]

[CgDs]

[Caskhades]

[CgDs]

[Caskhades]

Funny how your peace dividend kicks in in 1998, while the cold war ends in 1989-91. Before I shoot it down with facts, let me say it is a cute theory.

Before we start posting more inane graphs, perhaps you should wish to take a look at , more specifically at tax receipts and expenditure columns. Actually, to save you the extra click, I list the relevant data below.

Note that all the figures below are in fixed 2005 dollars, eliminating inflation and allowing comparability. The years are 1994-2002, listing receipts, outlays and net deficit/surplus, respectively:

1,617.7 1,878.9 -261.2
1,691.4 1,896.6 -205.1
1,775.5 1,906.8 -131.3
1,889.9 1,916.1 -26.2
2,040.9 1,958.8 82.1
2,136.4 1,989.5 146.8
2,310.0 2,040.6 269.5
2,215.3 2,072.7 142.7
2,028.6 2,201.3 -172.7

Now, kindly tell if the surplus is the result of a fall in spending (seen above growing at an average of $30 billion per year, in real terms) or as a result of a net increase in receipts (seen growing at 70bn/yr in the .com boom years, peaking simultaneously with the height of the boom in 2000, then falling at 150 bn/yr after the boom ends).