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But once the recession's over, you should pay down the debt. That was meant as a reproof to Bush 2, but it's not like it's something he managed to pull off. (It's hard to reduce the deficit. You either have to stop giving people an income stream or benefit they've come to think they're entitled to or you have to take away a possession or income in some way earned from people. I mean, even the interest on my T-bills is something I've 'earned' by simply not spending the money that I could put into T-bills--think of it as 'deferred gratification', because I know I could find something to do with those few thousands of dollars that would be more fun than navigating Treasury Direct.)

That link that you (and Bayard) posted, doesn't show him doing that. Nor does it show that the deficit got smaller under Clinton than Bush 1, Obama than Bush 2, and Biden than Trump 1.0. In fact, the deficit increased more., but I can't tell if they're in constant dollars or inflated dollars.)

Although it must be granted that under Trump 1.0 and early Biden it was COVID spending driving the debt--and that had people tried to reduce the deficit there'd have been hell to pay. (I mean, even as Trump was heading for the exit we manage to foist a half-trillion "mail everybody another check" measure on him with the threat of a government shut down if the (R) didn't accede to the measure and Trump didn't agree to sign it. But I'm not sure when that money actually was debited, whether in the few weeks left of Trump 1.0 or the first few months of Biden.)