ONE REFINEMENT, ONE NEW MEASURE
USING MEDIAN INCOMES
Median incomes may not rise as quickly as national income, because new wealth is not distributed proportionately. Therefore, expressing debt-spending burdens as per capita or per household doesn't capture as much one might with a measure of burden expressed in relation to the median income.
The table below has such a measure, using the Census Bureau's median household income figures from is Current Population Survey ("CPS" to them).
BEYOND 'GROSS FEDERAL DEBT'
The prior tables (here) were based on gross federal debt. That can be somewhat unfair for comparisons.
A better gross measure is how much was spent, beyond a balanced budget. An increase in just the debt held by the public, a statistic used by most for-hire economists, is not adequate, because that amount doesn't proxy "excess spending". A better measure includes the amount of debt that was NOT issued to the public because of net inflows from the social security trust (and other trust funds, which as small by comparison).
Adding together an increase in debt held by the public and net inflow from the trust funds, one gets a proxy for what one might call "total debt-spend".
INTERESTING COMPARISON
One criticism is that the economy now is larger and therefore can support more debt.
Scaling the debt loads by nominal growth in GDP, on can see that Reagan spent more than George "The Decider", which is truly astonishing since he did not have the huge tailwind of a large social security inflow.
However, when one looks at the burden by median household income, George "The Decider" is ahead.
In any case, Clinton-42 and Carter as below the others.
| Big Debt Spender | Cumulative Debt-Spend Per President | Per Household | Tax Burden in $2006 per Household | Tax Burden as % of current$ Median Household Income |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BUSH-43 | 3,786,625,141,392 | 31,636 | 26,941 | 60% |
| FY2008 | 3,372,625,141,392 | 28,545 | 25,646 | 56% |
| FY2007 | 2,977,995,326,832 | 25,534 | 24,203 | 51% |
| FY2006 | 2,506,810,560,098 | 21,775 | 21,775 | 45% |
| FY2005 | 1,986,928,549,967 | 17,485 | 18,555 | 38% |
| FY2004 | 1,467,034,420,814 | 13,078 | 14,767 | 29% |
| FY2003 | 894,779,930,786 | 8,081 | 9,728 | 19% |
| FY2002 | 372,870,071,780 | 3,412 | 4,300 | 8% |
| CLINTON-42 | 894,710,176,095 | 8,362 | 10,894 | 20% |
| FY2000 | 797,703,490,221 | 7,619 | 10,240 | 18% |
| FY1999 | 876,704,594,502 | 8,440 | 12,015 | 21% |
| FY1998 | 849,764,472,164 | 8,288 | 12,502 | 21% |
| FY1997 | 806,167,546,850 | 7,980 | 12,680 | 22% |
| FY1996 | 669,300,000,000 | 6,718 | 11,340 | 19% |
| FY1995 | 473,200,000,000 | 4,780 | 8,526 | 14% |
| FY1994 | 241,500,000,000 | 2,468 | 4,605 | 8% |
| BUSH-41 | 1,266,900,000,000 | 13,102 | 25,968 | 42% |
| FY1992 | 971,400,000,000 | 10,165 | 21,163 | 33% |
| FY1991 | 610,000,000,000 | 6,458 | 14,213 | 21% |
| FY1990 | 279,100,000,000 | 2,990 | 6,798 | 10% |
| REAGAN | 1,473,400,000,000 | 16,016 | 38,532 | 55% |
| FY1988 | 1,295,500,000,000 | 14,289 | 36,940 | 52% |
| FY1987 | 1,114,100,000,000 | 12,468 | 34,711 | 48% |
| FY1986 | 948,200,000,000 | 10,767 | 31,835 | 43% |
| FY1985 | 705,500,000,000 | 8,129 | 25,415 | 34% |
| FY1984 | 504,900,000,000 | 5,902 | 19,798 | 26% |
| FY1983 | 335,000,000,000 | 3,972 | 14,820 | 19% |
| FY1982 | 130,200,000,000 | 1,566 | 6,349 | 8% |
| CARTER | 229,000,000,000 | 2,795 | 11,787 | 15% |
| FY1980 | 152,600,000,000 | 1,889 | 8,936 | 11% |
| FY1979 | 83,000,000,000 | 1,054 | 5,426 | 6% |
| FY1980 | 54,100,000,000 | 705 | 4,052 | 5% |
sources: Treasury, Bureau of the Public Debt; BEA; Census Bureau; CBO and CBO projections for federal debt beyond FY2007.
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