Talk:National debt by U.S. presidential terms
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Prior to the addition of the "Increase Debt ($T)" column in the first table, the table might have left the false impression that under some presidents, the national debt decreased. The new column clears that right up. The new data might be more meaningful were they adjusted for inflation.
[edit] biased chart
the chart is biased in that it starts right at the peak of WW2 / New Deal debt. the chart suggests that FDR reduced the federal debt, which is misleading.
it should also be noted that looking at the "percent of gdp" side of this debt is problematic, because gdp contracted during the depression, making debt look much larger in relation to gdp than it would normally. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.81.255.254 (talk) 10:56, 21 September 2007 (UTC)
[edit] nearly meaningless chart
All spending originates in the House of Representatives. A similar chart based on the party in control of the house would be more in tune with political realities. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.244.5.31 (talk) 15:48, 7 October 2007 (UTC)
- Well, the buck has to stop somewhere, so I don't have a problem with that issue. However, the chart Image:Annual federal outlay.png isn't adjusted for inflation, which does make the chart meaningless. I move to delete it.Notmyrealname (talk) 20:07, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
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- The whole thing seems to be an exercise in Wikipedia-as-original-statistics-compilation. An actual article, with references, about the relationship between national debt and presidential terms, might be useful. There are plenty of references arguing both sides of that, so one could be written. But this sort of original research isn't very useful. --Delirium (talk) 11:30, 8 February 2008 (UTC)
