US Public Debt both in total dollars and percent of GDP

Just thought it was interesting that the failed economic policies of the last eight years have led to a lower debt as percent of GDP than the highly successful economic policies of the Clinton years.


US Debt from 1940 to 2007. Red lines indicate the public debt and black lines indicate the gross debt, the difference being that the gross debt includes funds held by the government (i.e. the Social Security Trust Fund). The second chart shows debt as a percentage of U.S. GDP or dollar value of economic production per year. (Note: The two charts above do not include the recent rise of the public debt to above $10 trillion on September 30, 2008. ) Data from the FY 2009 U.S. Budget historical tables at whitehouse.gov/omb

For comparison here is a public debt index