The U.S. didn’t leave the gold standard until 1933. The federal budget went into deficit in 1931. By 1934, Federal government expenditures were double their 1930 level. The Federal budget was in deficit every year from 1931-1946. The highest Deficit/Expenditures ratio in the 1930s was 55% in 1934. The highest ratio in the 1940s was was 69% in 1943.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/omb/budget/fy2013/assets/hist.pdf
Fiscal discipline is lax under a fiat money regime as the world had from the early 1930s until the end of the Second World War and after 1971.
