Jimmy Carter added $25 billion to the deficit.• Ronald Reagan added $74 billion. That seemed bad at the time; just you wait.• George H.W. Bush added $102 billion.• Bill Clinton reduced the deficit by $383 billion, leaving the budget in surplus when he left office.• George W. Bush added $1.54 trillion to the deficit.• Barack Obama got the deficit down to $585 billion; that is, he reduced it by $825 billion.• Donald Trump added $2.1 trillion to the deficit.• Joe Biden reduced the deficit by about $942 billion.
See a pattern there? Under Republican presidents in the last half-century, the deficit has increased by a total of $3.8 trillion. Under Democrats, it’s gone down by $2.1 trillion.
