National debt analysis

Here’s an interesting analysis of our national debt over the last several decades. Since even my 11 year old son Nathaniel worries about this — I think the campaign ads about “our children paying for years” got through to him — I found the questions this writer raises about what the money goes to, pertinent. An excerpt:

The debt created during the years 1942-1949 was used to fight a World War, the Great Depression, and a severe economic recession – necessary borrowing to meet critical national goals. The same cannot be said for the extraordinary amounts of borrowing that was caused by the tax and economic policies of the Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush eras.

Much of that borrowed money was used to fund tax cuts for a small percentage of America’s citizens – the wealthiest of our citizens. The national debt was reduced slightly during Bill Clinton’s presidential years; but most importantly, the national debt was on a downward slope to a more reasonable and manageable level.

Now we enter the Barack Obama years where we find our national debt at a level above 70 percent of GDP – a concerning fact. But as the second chart depicts, our national debt has been as high as 121 percent of GDP – so far a short period of time and in support of the national interest we can support high national debt levels. </blockquote>