Dear John: Which party do you hold responsible for the national debt?

When Ronald Reagan entered the White House, total national debt, from George Washington to Jimmy Carter, was $879 billion.

Eight years later, it stood at more than $2.4 trillion. George H.W. Bush added another $1.2 trillion in his four-year term. George W. Bush received a balanced budget — $6 billion surplus in the last budget — from Bill Clinton, which he turned into a $114 billion deficit his first year.

Not quite clear how it is that Democrats are responsible for the folly of Republican tax cuts but no corresponding budget cuts. M.H.

Dear M.H.: You forgot one. Under President Obama — a Democrat — the national debt went from $10.6 trillion to today’s $20 trillion. And in the last year alone, the national debt rose by $600 billion, which is not surprising since the incumbent party in Washington always spends merrily whenever there’s a presidential election. That’s how they win votes.

So my answer to you is that both parties are responsible. And each of these boosts in spending, even Obama’s, can be explained away by “special circumstances.” Reagan inherited a bad economy and used fiscal stimuli. “W” had to fight a war that might have been prevented had Clinton been paying a little more attention to what was going on in the Middle East.

And Obama, of course, inherited the Great Recession.

Everyone was to blame. And Donald Trump will get his share of blame if he cuts taxes and increases spending, as he is promising to do, without finding a way to pay the bills. And the hope of economic growth filling in the gap just doesn’t cut it.

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