Not really. It doesn’t look at what really matters. Debt as a % of GDP. And it doesn’t show who actually had control over a budget when it was set. This post from the mortgage thread does. The Republicans are not the wonderful stewards of money they claim to be, and Donald Trump was and is looking to be again a disaster.
Fiscal Year
President Responsible
House Control
Senate Control
Deficit (USD)
% of GDP
2012
Barack Obama (D)
Republican
Democratic
$1.327 trillion
8.5%
2013
Barack Obama (D)
Republican
Democratic
$680 billion
4.1%
2014
Barack Obama (D)
Republican
Democratic
$485 billion
2.8%
2015
Barack Obama (D)
Republican
Republican
$442 billion
2.4%
2016
Barack Obama (D)
Republican
Republican
$585 billion
3.1%
2017
Barack Obama (D)†
Republican
Republican
$665 billion
3.4%
2018
Donald Trump (R)
Republican
Republican
$779 billion
3.8%
2019
Donald Trump (R)
Democratic
Republican
$984 billion
4.6%
2020
Donald Trump (R)
Democratic
Republican
$3.132 trillion
14.9%
2021
Donald Trump (R)†
Democratic
Republican††
$2.775 trillion
12.4%
2022
Joe Biden (D)
Democratic
Democratic
$1.375 trillion
5.5%
2023
Joe Biden (D)
Republican
Democratic
$1.695 trillion
6.3%
2024
Joe Biden (D)
Republican
Democratic
$1.833 trillion
6.4%
2025
Joe Biden (D)
Republican
Democratic
$1.9 trillion
6.5%
Footnotes:
† Although Donald Trump was president during part of FY 2017 (starting January 20, 2017), the FY 2017 budget was mostly planned and signed into law during the Obama administration. Trump later signed supplemental appropriations.
†† Senate control in FY 2021 was effectively split 50-50 after the January 2021 runoffs in Georgia, with Vice President Kamala Harris (D)casting tie-breaking votes, giving Democrats functional control starting late January 2021 — but this occurred after the FY 2021 budget was largely set under Republican control.
I think this chart sums it up pretty well. Barack Obama did a pretty good job as President keeping spending under or around 3% of GSP after the 2009 financial crisis died down. Trump was an absolute disaster because he panicked during Covid and wildly overspent. Biden was ridiculously overspending, and here we sit with Trump in office and in control over both houses of Congress and the House passed a budget that will be the worst yet. Specifically for FY 2026, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that the deficit could rise by nearly $600 billion, bringing the total deficit to approximately $2.3 trillion, or about 7.3% of GDP . Fucking disaster.