After paying for WWI, democrat Woodrow Wilson left his republican successor
with a surplus.
After slashing taxes and a
stock market crash, the next 3 republicans left
Franklin Roosevelt with a deficit.
After battling through the
Great Depression and WWII, democrats Roosevelt
& Truman put the budget back in the black.
Between 1953 & 1980,
each party added roughly a quarter of a billion dollars to the deficit—slightly
more for the democrats because of the Vietnam War.
Between 1981 & 1992 republicans Reagan and H.W. Bush cut taxes and ran up
an unbroken string of six-figure annual deficits—the
largest ever.
Democrat Bill Clinton inherited a $300 million deficit and turned it into an
$86 million surplus.
Republican George W. Bush cut taxes, launched 2 major wars, and created the largest deficits in the history of the country.
Despite inheriting massive
deficits and a Great Recession, democrat Barack
Obama has managed to cut the annual deficit by more than half
in his first 5 years.
See for yourself (below):
