CNN Money: 3 of 4 GOP candidates would add to deficits

[ajb]

The GOP is the party of deficits. The Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility. That's been the case since the 1950s.

That's because the Democrats haven't been able to elect a programmatic Democrat...until Obama.  For the past 40 years, the US has elected Republicans and anti-Republicans, not Democrats*.

(* - Clinton is a bit of a special case - he was a true Democrat in 1992 but 1994 pushed him to the center and made him a relatively non-partisan centrist.  He should thank Gingrich for his legacy.)

Raising taxes helped. Of course, that led to the horrible economic stagnation that was the 1990's.

[ajb]

The debt-GDP ratio fell in every year of LBJ's presidency. In fairness, the same did happen under Eisenhower as well. It kept falling through Nixon's term, rose slightly under Ford, fell slightly again under Carter, then soared under Reagan.

[ajb]

The GOP is the party of deficits. The Democrats are the party of fiscal responsibility. That's been the case since the 1950s.

Seriously? Eisenhower was the one trying to reduce the deficit and his monetarist policies even contributed to his unpopularity in 1958. LBJ on the other hand was mister guns 'n' butter. At least say since the 70's. Attaching LBJ to fiscal responsibility and Eisenhower to fiscally liberal republicans is entirely false.

This is true. LBJ practically perfected tax-and-spend liberalism.

Which is why the debt-to-GDP ratio declined constantly under his presidency. It only began to soar under the Reagan era's "don't-tax-but-spend-anyway" conservatism.