Who Do YOU Think Was The Worst In 100 Years? January 12, 2025 Chris F.: Biden is the worst president in 100 years, and people in your party belong in prison for hiding his cognitive failures. I’ve read you for 20+ years. I’m done now. The democrats have ruined this country by spending it into oblivion and dividing us with this woke DEI insanity. I consider myself a moderate, like many people I know. We don’t love Trump, but we hate what a group of lowlife grifters and bullshit artists the Democrat party currently is. The middle voted not for Trump, but against you and your decades of failed policies. There’s a reason so many people like me, that have voted D in the past, voted for Trump and will probably never vote D ever again. The problem isn’t us. It’s you. Me: Thanks, Chris. I consider myself pretty moderate, too. That’s why I’ve been such a persistent fan of instant run-off voting and of Bill Maher’s rants against the over-woke. But “ruined this country” by “spending into oblivion?” From 1946 to 1980, the National Debt steadily shrank as a proportion of GDP, from 122% all the way back to 30% where it had been before the Depression and WWII. It only began growing again when Reagan cut taxes on the rich. By the time Reagan/Bush handed it off to Clinton, had the Debt as a proportion of GDP had doubled from 30% to 61%. The only two presidents in recent memory to have left the Debt shrinking relative to the economy when they left office were Democrats: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Clinton reduced the Debt/GDP ratio to 55%. Bush 43 then ramped it up to 82% — and handed Obama a financial crisis that required deficit spending to avert a depression, taking the ratio up to 99% by 2012 . . . but then edging up only to 104% by the time he handed it to Trump — who ran it up to 129%. These numbers are not meant to be precise (the federal fiscal year begins three months before each calendar year, and there’s a reasonable discussion to be had about when it’s fair to begin and end “crediting” a president’s actions with impacting the Debt), but you get the gist. And it looks as though Biden will be the third president in recent memory to leave the Debt ratio lower than he found it, back at around 122%. It’s also important to draw a distinction between what the borrowing has been for. In the run up from 30% in 1929 to 122% in 1946, it was to cope with the Depression and win World War II. Under Reagan-Bush-Bush-Trump, it has been largely for lowering taxes on the rich. Under Democratic presidents, it has been largely for investments in infrastructure and human capital. I didn’t get very far in Accounting, but I do know the difference between spending (as, when, say, you gas up your yacht) and investing (as when, say, you install solar panels). Unlike business accounting, federal accounting makes no such distinction. Winning World War II or funding 70,000 infrastructure projects strike me as worthy investments. Tax cuts for the rich — not so much. If Trump follows through on his stated plans, he’ll again spike up the Debt. (And inflation.) So was Biden “the worst president in the last 100 years” as you say? He’s handing off an economy the Economist calls “the envy of the world” — 4% unemployment, record-high stock prices, wages rising faster than inflation that itself is barely above the Fed target. To me, the infrastructure bill and CHIPs Act that Biden pushed through, whatever his cognitive difficulties, are huge wins for the country. He also secured a strong bipartisan fix to the border crisis that Trump scuttled out of nothing more than self-interest. If the border poses a national emergency as he says, then his delaying the fix by a year comes pretty close to treason. Or is, at the very least, not something to blame Biden for. There’s so much more I’m sure both of us could say (a much strengthened NATO and weakened Russia?) — I will look forward to any further thoughts you want to share — but I can’t leave out asking how you can rate Bush 43 ahead of Biden. A nice guy, to be sure . . . but prior to Trump, wasn’t he the worst president in 100 years? He gave us totally preventable disasters at home and abroad. BONUS Trump’s ‘border czar’ floats ‘fresh idea’ — a hotline to report undocumented immigrants Experts have warned mass deportations could have a massive impact on the economy. In 2022, undocumented immigrant households paid $46.8 billion in federal taxes and $29.3 billion in state and local taxes, according to an October report by the American Immigration Council. They also contributed $22.6 billion to Social Security and $5.7 billion to Medicare. Additionally, undocumented immigrants make up about a quarter of U.S. farm workers, one-fifth of maintenance workers, and 17 percent of construction workers, according to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations.