History of US Deficits

If the economy turns sour - as Alan Greenspan has hinted it might, 
due to the "Asian Financial Crisis," the consequences could be 
bleak. In the 1920s, which also was nearly a decade of a bull
market on Wall Street, the 1929 crash followed a period of 
deficit surpluses and low national debt.

Beginning with Calvin Coolidge's Administration in the 1920s, 
each year showed a Budget surplus and the National Debt was 
steadily decreasing. 

YearPresidentPartySpeaker        PartyReceiptsExpensesDeficit
1924Calvin CoolidgeRep.F. GilletteRep 4,012         3,048          +964
1925Calvin CoolidgeRep.N. LongworthRep 3,780         3,063          +717
1926Calvin CoolidgeRep.N. LongworthRep 3,963         3,098          +865
1927Calvin CoolidgeRep.N.s LongworthRep 4,129         2,974        +1,155
1928Calvin CoolidgeRep.N. LongworthRep 4,042         3,103          +939


The budget surplus began to turn around, not beginning in FDR's
Administration, but in Herbert
Hoover. In fact, many of the 
public spending ideas today credited to FDR actually were begun 
by Herbert Hoover. Not the least of these was the decision to 
STEP UP spending for infrastructure.
Money already allocated was
hurriedly spent to create jobs. Today, Indonesia is following 
the same path - spending already allocated money to create jobs 
in the public sector.

YearPresidentPartySpeaker        PartyReceiptsExpensesDeficit
1929Herbert HooverRep.N. LongworthRep 4,033         3,299          +734
1930Herbert HooverRep.N. LongworthRep 4,178         3,440          +738
1931Herbert HooverRep.John N. GarnerDem 3,116         3,577           461
1932Herbert HooverRep.John N. GarnerDem 1,924         4,659         2,735

It was in 1932, during the Presidential Campaign, that the 
Depression hit rock bottom - quite
possibly partly because the 
FDR and the Democrats used the idea that President Hoover was
actually CAUSING the problems with his policies. It so frightened
the American people that generation literally never recovered. 
They stopped spending money and worried so much about the return 
of 1932 that they never again spent money as freely as they did 
prior to that time. It took 25 years for Wall Street to regain 
its 1929 value. Deficit spending became a way of life, protected 
by theories that it was the balanced budget that helped CAUSE 
the Great Depression.

YearPresidentPartySpeaker        PartyReceiptsExpensesDeficit
1933Hoover/RseveltDem.Henry RaineyDem      2,021         4,623         2,602
1934F. RooseveltDem.Henry RaineyDem 3,064         6,694         3,630
1935F. RooseveltDem.Joseph ByrnsDem 3,730         6,521         2,791
1936F. RooseveltDem.Wm. BankheadDem 3,923         8,228         4,304
1937F. RooseveltDem.Wm. BankheadDem 5,387         7,580         2,196
1938F. RooseveltDem.Wm. BankheadDem 6,751         6,840            89
1939F. RooseveltDem.Wm. BankheadDem 6,295         9,141          2,846
1940F. RooseveltDem.Sam RayburnDem 6,548         9,468         2,920
1941F. RooseveltDem.Sam RayburnDem 8,712        13,653         4,941
1942F. RooseveltDem.Sam RayburnDem14,634        35,137        20,503
1943F. RooseveltDem.Sam RayburnDem24,001        78,555         54,554
1944F. RooseveltDem.Sam RayburnDem43,747         91,304        47,557
1945TrumanDem.Sam RayburnDem45,159        92,712         47,553

President Harry Truman, on the death of FDR, inherited both a 
huge debt and the decision to drop the atomic bomb. He also 
ended up with a Republican House of Representatives, which 
lowered appropriations, thus lowering the annual budget deficit.

YearPresidentPartySpeaker        PartyReceiptsExpensesDeficit
1946Harry TrumanDem.Sam RayburnDem39,296        55,232         15,936
1947Harry TrumanDem.Joseph MartinRep38,514        34,496        +4,018
1948Harry TrumanDem.Joseph MartinRep.41,560        29,764       +11,796
1949Harry TrumanDem.Sam RayburnDem39,415        38,835          +580
1950Harry TrumanDem.Sam RayburnDem 39,443        42,562         3,119
1951Harry TrumanDem.Sam RayburnDem 51,616 45,514        +6,102
1952Harry TrumanDem.Sam RayburnDem 66,167        67,686         1,519

During the Dwight Eisenhower administration, once again for a 
brief two years, there was a Republican House of Representatives, 
and a Republican President. Again the Deficit, as a result,
showed a reduction. However, after years of depression and war, 
the American people were in a mood to celebrate peace and 
prosperity by spending money they didn't have. The Korean War 
and a spend happy Congress almost doubled the annual deficit 
spending, after the two year hiatus. Because the economy was 
good, however, the per capita amount of the National Debt 
actually dropped slightly.

YearPresidentPartySpeaker        PartyReceipts        ExpensesDeficit
1953EisenhowerRep.Joseph MartinRep69,608        76,101         6,493
1954EisenhowerRep.Joseph MartinRep69,701        70,855         1,154
1955EisenhowerRep.Sam RayburnDem65,451        68,444         2,993
1956EisenhowerRep.Sam RayburnDem74,587        70,640        +3,947
1957EisenhowerRep.Sam RayburnDem79,990        76,578        +3,412
1958EisenhowerRep.Sam RayburnDem79,636        82,405         2,769
1959EisenhowerRep.Sam RayburnDem79,249        92,098        12,849
1960EisenhowerRep.Sam RayburnDem92,492         92,191           +301

From 1960 to 1994, the House of Representatives, which by
Constitutional fiat originates all appropriations bills, was 
under the control of free-spending Democrats - although there 
were several Republican Presidents during that time - Richard 
Nixon, Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan, George Bush.

The first balanced budget, announced this month, came only after
three years of a Republican House
of Representatives.

President Clinton's proposed 1999 Budget would again reverse 
that trend, in this election year, with over $100 billion in new 
spending programs which would again un-balance the budget in the
year 2000, even if the current rate of Federal Tax receipts 
continues at its present high rate, which is unlikely in view 
of the problems elsewhere in the world. It was, after all, the 
WORLDWIDE depression which first triggered the 1929 Stock Market
crash.

YearPresidentPartySpeaker        Party  ReceiptsExpensesDeficit
1961John F. KennedyDem.Sam RayburnDem   94,388  97,723  3,335
1962John F. KennedyDem.John McCormackDem   99,676106,821         7,146
1963Kennedy/JohnsonDem.John McCormackDem  106,560111,316         4,756
1964Lyndon JohnsonDem.John McCormackDem  112,613118,528         5,915
1965Lyndon JohnsonDem.John McCormackDem  116,817118,228         1,411
1966Lyndon JohnsonDem.John McCormackDem  130,835134,532         3,698
1967Lyndon JohnsonDem.John McCormackDem  148,822157,464         8,643
1968Lyndon JohnsonDem.John McCormackDem  152,973178,134        25,161
1969Richard NixonRep.John McCormackDem  186,882183,640        +3,242
1970Richard NixonRep.John McCormackDem  192,807195,649         2,842
1971Richard NixonRep.Carl AlbertDem  187,139210,172        23,033
1972Richard NixonRep.Carl AlbertDem  207,309230,681        23,373
1973Richard NixonRep.Carl AlbertDem  230,799245,707        14,908
1974Gerald FordRep.Carl AlbertDem  263,224269,359         6,135
1975Gerald FordRep.Carl AlbertDem  279,090332,332        53,242
1976Gerald FordRep.Carl AlbertDem  298,060371,779        73,719
1977Jimmy CarterDem.Tim O'NeillDem  355,559409,203        53,644
1978Jimmy CarterDem.Tim O'NeillDem  399,561458,729        59,168
1979Jimmy CarterDem.Tim O'NeillDem  463,302502,464        40,162
1980Jimmy CarterDem.Tim O'NeillDem  517,112590,920        73,808
1981Ronald ReaganRep.Tim O'NeillDem  599,272678,209        78,936
1982Ronald ReaganRep.Tim O'NeillDem  617,766745,705       127,940
1983Ronald ReaganRep.Tim O'NeillDem  600,562808,327       207,764
1984Ronald ReaganRep.Tim O'NeillDem  666,562851,781       185,324
1985Ronald ReaganRep.Tim O'NeillDem  734,057946,316       212,260
1986Ronald ReaganRep.Tim O'NeillDem  769,091990,231       221,140
1987Ronald ReaganRep.Jim WrightDem  854,143      1,003,804       149,661
1988Ronald ReaganRep.Jim WrightDem  908,166      1,063,318       155,151
1989George BushRep.Tom FoleyDem  990,701      1,144,020       153,319
1990George BushRep.Tom FoleyDem1,031,308      1,251,776       220,469
1991George BushRep.Tom FoleyDem1,054,265      1,323,757       269,492
1992George BushRep.Tom FoleyDem1,090,453      1,380,794       290,340
1993Wm. ClintonDem.Tom FoleyDem1,153,226      1,408,532       255,306
1994Wm. ClintonDem.Tom FoleyDem1,257,451      1,460,553       203,102
1995Wm. ClintonDem.Newt GingrichRep1,350,570      1,519,533       163,813
1996Wm. ClintonDem.Newt GingrichRep1,462,680      1,572,411        90,269
1997Wm. ClintonDem.Newt GingrichRep1,598,187      1,635,329        37,122
1998 Wm ClintonDem.Newt GingrichRep1,687,889      1,675,877       +18,012
IRS 

Sunset

Sunset the Current Tax Code 

Rep. Thune

March 4, 1998

Mr. Speaker, I was disappointed this week to hear the President 
label Republican efforts to sunset the Internal Revenue Code as 
irresponsible. I want to tell you my definition of irresponsible.
Last year only one in five calls to the IRS customer hotline got
through. That is irresponsible.

The IRS sends out 8 million pages of forms and instructions each
year, enough to circle the Earth 28 times. That is irresponsible.

Every year, Money Magazine asks 50 different tax preparers to 
prepare a 1040 form for a sample family. No two preparers ever 
arrive at the same answer, and the results vary by thousands of
dollars. That is irresponsible.

I am proud to be a cosponsor of legislation to sunset the 
Internal Revenue Code. There is nothing radical about 
accountability from a government agency or working towards a 
fairer, flatter Tax Code. If you want a true definition of 
irresponsibility, look at our current Tax Code. Maintaining the
status quo is the most irresponsible thing that we could do to 
our Nation and to our future.

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