When thinking about the national debt, it’s important to measure the debt as a percentage of gross domestic product. Gross domestic product (or GDP) is a measurement of the value of all goods and services produced in a nation in a year. It’s helpful to look at the percentage of national debt to GDP for a few reasons:

Comparing percentages takes inflation out of the consideration, allowing for more fair comparisons over long periods of time.

Using percentage debt to GDP gives the reader a sense of the scale of debt and what the amount of debt means for attempts to pay it off.

What might be the costs of having such a large national debt?
Did the promise that tax cuts would result in a growing economy that would pay for any budget shortfalls come true during the Reagan years?