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Federal Government Budget Deficit

The purpose of this research is to examine the issue of the federal government budget deficit in the United States. Factors addressed are historical development, reasons for growth, impact on the economy, and measures to control the deficit.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE DEFICIT

When Ronald Reagan campaigned for the presidency in 1980, one of his most consistent themes was that of the economic evils of the irresponsibly high federal budget deficits attributed to the Carter Administration. Candidate Reagan pledged to restore economic sanity by, among other things, eliminating federal budget deficits by the end of the third year of his first term as president.

During the four fiscal years in which Jimmy Carter was president (fiscal years 19771980), the federal budget deficits totalled $226.8 billion (Council of Economic Advisers [CEA], 1988, July, p. 32). This cumulative Carter Administration deficit followed a cumulative deficit of $144.1 billion in the 19731976 fiscal year period of the Nixon/Ford presidency. The cumulative four year deficit increased $82.7 billion, or 57.4 percent, from Nixon/Ford to Carter, in terms of current dollars (CEA, 1984, p. 32).

Under President Reagan, the cumulative budget deficit in the Administration's first term (fiscal years 19811984) was $599.9 billion (CEA, 1988, July, p. 32). The cumulative four year deficit increased $373.1 billion, or 164.5 percent, from Carter to Reagan, in terms of current dollars. In the first three fiscal years (19851987) of the Reagan Administration's second term, the cumulative deficit was $606.2 billion (CEA, 1988, July, p. 32). The 1988 fiscal year deficit has been estimated at $170 billion; thus, the fouryear deficit for the president's second term may be estimated at $776.2 billion  a 28 percent increase over the first term, and a 242.2 percent over the cumulative Carter Administration deficit which, during th...

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Federal Government Budget Deficit. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:35, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1687387.html