The first of two posts dealing with the issue of our nation's public debt.

Editor's note: In GW Bush's 8 years, he AND the Democrat Congress added 4.36 trillion to the national debt and left it at 83% of GDP. There has been much misreporting on this particular point, but this seems to be an accurate report but differing numbers abound - a problem. See the source noted below. Bush took the debt/GDP ratio up by 20 points. In the post following this, we give you an article that tells us that Obama is about to take the debt/GDP ratio up by 21 points within 6 years, at present rates of increase -- jds.
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U.S. president	Party	Term years	Start debt/GDP	End debt/GDP	Increase debt ($T)	Increase debt/GDP (in percentage points)
Roosevelt/Truman	D	1945-1949	117.5%	93.1%	0.05	-24.4%
Truman Harry Truman	D	1949-1953	93.1%	71.4%	0.01	-21.5%
Eisenhower1 Dwight Eisenhower	R	1953-1957	71.4%	60.4%	0.01	-11.0%
Eisenhower2 Dwight Eisenhower	R	1957-1961	60.4%	55.2%	0.02	-5.2%
Kennedy/Johnson	D	1961-1965	55.2%	46.9%	0.03	-8.3%
Johnson Lyndon Johnson	D	1965-1969	46.9%	38.6%	0.05	-8.3%
Nixon1 Richard Nixon	R	1969-1973	38.6%	35.6%	0.07	-3.0%
Nixon2 Nixon/Ford	R	1973-1977	35.6%	35.8%	0.19	+0.2%
Carter Jimmy Carter	D	1977-1981	35.8%	32.5%	0.28	-3.3%
Reagan1 Ronald Reagan	R	1981-1985	32.5%	43.8%	0.66	+10.8%
Reagan2 Ronald Reagan	R	1985-1989	43.8%	53.1%	1.04	+9.3%
Bush GHW George H. W. Bush	R	1989-1993	51.1%	66.1%	1.40	+13.0%
Clinton1 Bill Clinton	D	1993-1997	66.1%	65.4%	1.18	-0.7%
Clinton2 Bill Clinton	D	1997-2001	65.4%	56.4%	0.45	-9.0%
Bush GW1 George W. Bush	R	2001-2005	56.4%	63.5%	1.73	+7.1%
Bush GW2 George W. Bush	R	2005-2009	63.4%	83.4%	2.63	+20.0%
Obama1 Barack Obama	D	2009-2013	83.4%

(Source: Whitehouse FY 2011 Budget - Table 7.1 Federal Debt at the End of Year PDF, Excel)

The following chart demonstrates the difficulty of arriving at an accurate total for public debt in relation to GDP ( or any 'official' comparison, for that matter.) The chart is the graphic summation of the article found here.

According to this chart, while Clinton balanced the budget in each of the last four years of his presidency with the help of a Republican Congress (a Democrat congress has never balanced a budget in modern times) , the net public debt/GDP ratio was higher during Clinton than all but the last two budget years of Bush ('08 and '09 ending on September 31 of '09). Still, Clinton did a better job working with a Republican Congress in balancing the budget than any modern day president -- jds.

Bush debt, Obama debt, trillion dollar debt,
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