Mar 06 2025 12 mins 39
When presidents come into office, traditionally their first big speech to Congress is about the budget. Like President Trump this past week.
Instead of a State of the Union address, new presidents share their economic agenda and vision for the coming four years.
And almost always in that big budget speech, they anguish over the escalating national debt.
Like President Ronald Reagan in 1981…
Our national debt is approaching $1 trillion. A few weeks ago I called such a figure, a trillion dollars, incomprehensible, and I've been trying ever since to think of a way to illustrate how big a trillion really is. And the best I could come up with is that if you had a stack of thousand-dollar bills in your hand only 4 inches high, you'd be a millionaire. A trillion dollars would be a stack of thousand-dollar bills 67 miles high.
And President Bill Clinton in 1993 …
I well remember 12 years ago President Reagan stood at this very podium and told you and the American people that if our national debt were stacked in thousand-dollar bills, the stack would reach 67 miles into space. Well, today that stack would reach 267 miles.
What have other new presidents said in their economic speeches to Congress about the debt?
Which presidents have blamed other presidents?
And how has rhetoric about the debt changed over past decades in these speeches to Congress?
Find out in this week's episode of C-SPAN's podcast "The Weekly." As we hear new Presidents fret about the debt.
Find C-SPAN's "The Weekly" wherever you get podcasts.
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