Six-Chart Sunday (#10)
6 Infographics from the week + 1 video interview (journalist Chris Stirewalt on the "Broken News")
Debtors-in-Chief: America’s first 42 Presidents racked up 30% of our National Debt, while the four 21st Century Presidents are responsible for 70%. Trump & Biden combine for ~1/3rd of the total (~$12.4T).
The Deficit Divide: Republicans express far greater concern about “federal spending and the budget deficit” than Democrats. In fact it’s the issue with the largest gap between Democrats and Republicans in Gallup’s March poll. Unclear whether it will advantage either candidate in November, though, given both have significant red ink on their hands.
Wealth Inequality is (Mostly) Shrinking: Shares of U.S. wealth held by the bottom half and much of the middle class have grown over the past five years, while the shares for the 90-99.9% are near their lowest since the early 2000s. The top 0.1% enjoyed gains, by contrast, and now account for 13.6% of total household wealth, near a record for that group in Fed data back to 1989.
Take this Job and Shove It: Significant percentages of Congressional senior staffers are “frequently questioning” whether to stay in Congress due to heated rhetoric from hyper-partisans.
Take this Treaty and Shove It?: “Throughout the Reagan years, Republicans were consistently more supportive of NATO than Democrats. Four decades later, their respective positions have flipped: today, 80% of Democrats and only 53% of Republicans support maintaining or increasing our NATO commitment.”
Take this Country & Shove It?!: “One-third (34%) of Americans would like to go and settle in another country if they were free to do so. Fifty years ago, this number stood at a much lower 10%.”
VIDEO
Journalist & keen political analyst Chris Stirewalt on why the news business is broken and how to fix it.
Re: current national debt
Please read The Power to Destroy, How the Antitax Movement Hijacked America, by Michael J. Graetz, Princeton University Press, 2024, for an excellent historical discussion of how tax reductions (initiated by Republicans) without expenditure reductions have contributed to our federal deficit issue.
The first graphic in this article is visually interesting graphic that fails to tell the important story. It misses the point in two important ways.
1. It is not surprising that the presidents in office over the last 25 years are responsible for the current national debt. For example, the massive debts incurred during World War 2 and the Korean and Vietnam wars have all been retired; the bonds and treasury notes have been repaid.
2. It fails to break down the debt incurred by the last four presidents. Our national debt needs to be reduced. We need to know how the money was spent to understand how to prevent spending from getting out of hand. We cannot just blame the current Presidents, Senators, and Representatives. That is the easy road.