Cato’s David Boaz alleges that “it must be a great disappointment to Goldwater Republicans to discover this story that got almost no notice this week.” The story in question turns out to be about the burgeoning national debt in the Bush years:
But as the chart makes perfectly clear, it seems unlikely to me that Goldwaterites are genuinely disappointed with this turn of events. The major causes of growing debt-to-GDP ratio are World War II and the election of post-Goldwater conservative Republicans. That’s not necessarily the worst thing in the world — arguably some Democrats are too debt averse — but the record is pretty clear. Conservatives in power leads to skyrocketing debt.
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