White House Goes Graphic: We Didn't Create The Debt Mess!

Last Sunday, The New York Times ran a few bracingly informative graphics that showed how we went from a budget surplus to a budget deficit in just 10 years. It was such great visual storytelling that it quickly went viral in the politico-econo blogosphere. MoneyWatch's John Keefe was all over it on Monday.

On Wednesday, the White House came out with its own graphic story that seems to have been inspired by the Times's effort. The official header for the White House graphic below is simply U.S. National Debt, but the unwritten headline/message could well be Hey, Don't Blame This on Us! Look at What the Republican Bush Administration Did
Here it is:

Source: whitehouse.gov

The White House emailed the graphic out Wednesday evening to people who have signed up for missives from whitehouse.gov. Got questions or comments? Well, the White House is standing by to answer 'em in 140 characters or less. In the same email as the one with the above graphic, the White House publicized upcoming "Office Hours" via Twitter with White House economic staff this week:

"Thursday, July 28

• 1:00 p.m. EDT: Office Hours with Jason Furman, Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council
• 3:00 p.m. EDT:Office Hours with Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council

Friday, July 29

• 10:00 a.m. EDT:Office Hours with Jason Furman, Principal Deputy Director of the National Economic Council
• 4:00 p.m. EDT: Office Hours with Brian Deese, Deputy Director of the National Economic Council

Go to @WhiteHouse for the latest updates and use the hashtag #WHChat to lob your questions."