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Government Revenues, the Debt, and GNP: 1982-9

A nice comparison is the measure of the debt and deficit against our GNP, widely regarded as the best measure of our indebtedness. Because our revenues are tied to GNP (Note: we now use GDP, a slightly different measure) our relative indebtedness can be determined as a percentage of that figure.

Source: American Almanac, United States Budgets, et al.

GNP, Budget Deficits and Relative Change In billions of dollars except percents
Fiscal Year	GNP	Deficit	%GNP	Debt	%GNP	% Change
1982	3130	127.9	4.1	1147.0	36.6
1983	3325	207.8	6.2	1381.9	41.6	5.0
1984	3688	185.3	5.0	1576.7	42.8	1.2
1985	3958	212.3	5.4	1827.5	46.2	3.4
1986	4177	220.7	5.3	2129.5	51.0	4.8
1987	4442	148.0	3.4	2354.3	53.0	2.0
1988	4771	155.1	3.2	2614.6	54.8	1.8
1989	5201	152.0	2.9	2881.1	55.4	0.6

As can be seen, the deficit spiked early, then declined sharply in the second term of Reagan's presidency. Our debt increased by about 18.8% (GDP) and 51% relative to the previous level (18.8 being about half of 36.6), a far cry from the doubling, tripling, or quadrupling that some claim.

You can tell whether there is a Republican or Democrat in the White House by how the mainstream media references the debt. For Republicans, they focus on the dollar amounts, claiming they are "records". With Democrats, they actually use the more accurate % of GDP figures. It's all about an agenda with the mainstream media.

A note about measuring government spending. A fiscal year runs from October-September. The 1982 fiscal year, for example runs from October, 1981 to September, 1982. This can make tables like the above appear a bit confusing at first. The 1982 fiscal year is Reagan's first budget year, so we use the fiscal years 1982-9 to demonstrate how deficits and debt changed during his terms in office. Using fiscal year 1981 would not make sense as it acutally began in 1980, before he was elected, and ran through the first nine months of his first term—before his economic policies were approved by Congress.

Find out what the current total debt is.