Courtesy of Bruce Krasting.
Lots of talk about “deficits” of late. I’m not sure what a deficit really means. Consider the Clinton years. The economy was good, there were no wars or disasters, the deficits were small, there were a few years where there was a budget surplus. – Aaaah – The debt exploded during those “good” years. The cumulative deficit for the Clinton years was only $327Billion, but the debt rose by $1.56 Trillion (475% more debt than deficits).
The deficit is a component of the debt. But it is not the only driver of debt. The following chart is the difference between the reported deficit, and the increase in debt going back to 2000.
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