Clinton balanced the budget. There was a surplus. Go read Articles from the 90s there was fear that we would pay down the debt too fast and it would harm the economy.

Obama was on tracy to reduce the deficit and likely would have had the financial crisis not required stimulus.

Biden was using debt to invest in infrastructure and things like power generation that would yield returns unlike tax cuts that just exacerbate wealth concentration and inflation by asset appreciation due to capital chasing the same assets.

It’s not symmetrical one party is driving this and the irony is that they are the “fiscally responsible” party.

No amount of discipline is possible for democrats if every time they balance the budget republicans use the savings to cut taxes further.