>>>>The table here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt from the Congressional Budget Office paints rather a different picture. Is it wrong ?
>>>>
>>>>Let me give you a couple examples of government estimates as we consider the estimated $1 trillion health care bill:
>>>>
>>>>• Boston's "Big Dig" Highway Project
>>>>Estimated preliminary price tag (in 1985): $2.5 billion
>>>>Actual cost with interest: $22 billion
>>>>
>>>>• Medicare Part A
>>>>Estimated price tag for 1990: $9 billion
>>>>Actual cost in 1990: $67 billion
>>>>
>>>>• Medicaid's Special Hospital Subsidy
>>>>Estimated cost for 1992: less than $1 billion
>>>>Actual cost in 1992: $17 billion
>>>>
>>>>Is there some good reason that I should have any faith in government estimates?
>>>
>>>But is there a good reason to have faith in anyone else's ?
>>>IAC, this is all thread drift. My original comment was specifically that the budget deficit figures you listed by presendential term disproved rather than proved your assertion that republicans were better at managing the budget. As elsewhere, I've no particular view on whether these are useful statistics - just that your use of them seemed to shoot yourself in the foot :-}
>>
>>I think the point was made (by Jake?) that there are actually two different areas and two different discussions. I think these are the most applicable:
>>
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms
>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Deficits_vs._Debt_Increases_-_2009.png
>
>Thx. The summary figures there make the Republican record look even worse. Increase in federal debt between 1978-2005 :
>Democrats : 4.2%
>Republican : 36.4%
>Don't know why it's only calculated to 2005 when the table covers the period to 2007 but, IAC, factoring in the extra two years would only increase the Republican percentage. But correlation doesn't prove causation.....

It's the huge jump in the 2nd link that is the most concerning, not which political party increased it the most. It needs to get under control now, regardless of which party the current administration belongs to...the focus needs to be removed from the political party entirely and focus needs to go into decreasing it regardless.