e 1980 election, was decried by candidate Reagan.
Federal budget deficits did not originate with Nixon, Ford, Carter, or Reagan. The federal budget surplus occurred in fiscal 1969, and that is the only one which has been recorded in the past 25 years. Under Ronald Reagan, however, federal budget deficits have become truly magnificent, and have assumed a life of their own.
REASONS FOR GROWTH OF THE DEFICIT
During the Second World War, the federal budget deficit increased, because of the need to fight an all out war financed by an economy which had been in serious recession for 10 years. The largest of these deficits was $54.9 billion in 1943, and the cumulative wartime deficit was $186.1 billion (CEA, 1988, February, p. 306). Once again, federal budget deficits soared, when the Viet Nam War w
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