Facts about deficits and debts

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Here are actually some of the most important reasons behind the worsening public sector finances, per the CBO (from Vox):

As this classic 2013 chart from the Center on Budget and Policy Prioritiesshows, the Bush tax cuts, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the economic downturn accounted for basically all of the deficit by Obama’s second term in office, with the Bush tax cuts driving the lion’s share:

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

It is no longer 2013, and spending increases approved under both Trump and Obama, as well as Trump’s tax cuts, have together expanded the deficit beyond what the above projections show. But it nonetheless functions as an important account of how we got to this point.