Do Most Economists Think Government Deficits Should Have Been Lower Before the Pandemic Hit?

Washington Post reporter Heather Long has a series of useful charts comparing the economy’s performance  under Presidents Obama and Trump. Most of the discussion is quite good, but one item that raised my eyebrow was in the section on deficits, where it told readers:

“Many economists say the bulge in spending after the Great Recession and pandemic recession were necessary and unavoidable, but they fault Obama and Trump for not doing more to right the federal budget during the good economic years...