"To be clear: the middle column is how much overall federal debt grew, or shrank, as a share of gross domestic product during each administration, and the right-hand chart is the average annual rate of growth or reduction during that administration."
Ezra Klein followed up
And he points out "Basically, [big] deficits happen when recessions happen." The people whining about the deficit now don't seem to admit that the reason it's so large is that the economy has shrunk so tax revenues are down. Now we could cut spending to bring it in line, but during a recession is when you want the government to spend money to help the economy get out of recession sooner. The part Republicans since Reagan have forgotten is to pay down the debt during the good times.
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