Who Spent All Our Money?

@YKantBobReed posited that fiscal conservatives would not vote Republicans because the US national debt (as a function of the GDP, Gross Domestic Product) increased more during the times Republicans were in the White House. (He didn't fit all that into one tweet; I'm reading between the lines based on his link posted to @adamsbaldwin.)

The reply from @adamsbaldwin stated, "Congress spends money. Got a chart that tracks Congress along those same timelines?"

As yet, @YKantBobReed has not offered any such chart via his Twitter feed.

Because tomorrow is a school holiday, I have lots of free time :) so I Googled to see if such a chart existed. I could not find one easily, but I collated the data and created my own chart. At the end, I offer a few observations based on the totals.

	Year-2-year % chg. US National Debt as Function of Congressional Control
	% of GDP	Congressional control by party or split S/H control	D	R	split
1945	117.5	D	---					D=Democratic-Controlled Senate, House
1946	121.7	D	4.20					R=Republican-Controlled Senate, House
1947	110.3	R		-11.40				R/D and D/R indicate Senate/House controlled by different parties.
1948	98.2	R		-12.10
1949	93.1	D	-5.10
1950	94.1	D	1.00
1951	79.7	D	-14.40
1952	74.3	D	-5.40					References: http://uspolitics.about.com/od/usgovernment/l/bl_party_division_2.htm
1953	71.4	R/D			-2.90
1954	71.8	D	0.40
1955	69.3	D	-2.50
1956	63.9	D	-5.40					http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_debt_by_U.S._presidential_terms
1957	60.4	D	-3.50
1958	60.8	D	0.40
1959	58.6	D	-2.20
1960	56.0	D	-2.60
1961	55.2	D	-0.80
1962	53.4	D	-1.80
1963	51.8	D	-1.60
1964	49.3	D	-2.50
1965	46.9	D	-2.40
1966	43.5	D	-3.40
1967	42.0	D	-1.50
1968	42.5	D	0.50
1969	38.6	D	-3.90
1970	37.6	D	-1.00
1971	37.8	D	0.20
1972	37.1	D	-0.70
1973	35.6	D	-1.50
1974	33.6	D	-2.00
1975	34.7	D	1.10
1976	36.2	D	1.50
TQ	35.0	D	-1.20
1977	35.8	D	0.80
1978	35.0	D	-0.80
1979	33.2	D	-1.80
1980	33.4	D	0.20
1981	32.5	R/D			-0.90
1982	35.3	R/D			2.40
1983	39.9	R/D			4.60
1984	40.7	R/D			0.80
1985	43.8	R/D			3.10
1986	48.2	R/D			4.40
1987	50.4	D	2.20
1988	51.9	D	1.50
1989	53.1	D	1.20
1990	55.9	D	2.80
1991	60.7	D	4.80
1992	64.1	D	3.40
1993	66.1	D	2.00
1994	66.6	R		0.50
1995	67.0	R		0.40
1996	67.1	R		0.10
1997	65.4	R		-1.70
1998	63.2	R		-2.20
1999	60.9	R		-2.30
2000	57.3	R		-3.60
2001	56.4	D/R			-0.90
2002	58.8	D/R			2.40
2003	61.6	R		2.80
2004	62.9	R		1.30
2005	63.5	R		0.60
2006	63.9	R		0.40
2007	64.4	D	0.50
2008	69.2	D	4.80
2009	83.4	D	14.20
% Change over time			23.90	-27.20	15.90
	It appears that a Democratic Congress increased the debt percentage by almost 24% net over the last 55 years (more than half in 2009). A “split” Congress had a net increase of nearly 16%. Years that had a Republican-controlled Congress decreased the debt percentage by more than 3.5% in recent years in addition to decreases in '47 and '48.
	The Republican Congresses also tend toward smaller increases than either the Democratic or “split” Congresses. So who is responsible: Congress or the President? We the people who elect them all probably need to share some credit and blame as well, but these numbers seem to indicate that those who control Congress make the difference.