— Calvin Coolidge, 1925
Today, American presidents and Congress struggle to control the federal budget. Deficits, not surpluses, have become the rule for the federal household. Crises come and go, but the debts they create stay with us. Indeed, the spending we commit to during crises, we often continue after those crises. During wars, the government gets bigger. Coming out of war, a president will sometimes manage to team up with Congress to cut government–some. That's what President Harry Truman managed, for example. Once peaceti
The presidents after World War I confronted just such challenges. The national debt from inducting and mobilizing several million soldiers overnight, and then prosecuting the war proved enormous. Yet unlike leaders today, Presidents Warren Harding and Calvin Coolidge determined to tackle the debt post-Crisis. Elected in 1920, President Harding took the first steps toward achieving the goal.