Chuck Norris Doesn't Know His Thomas Jefferson

Chuck Norris sez:

We all must fight (once and for all and across the board) to elect fiscally prudent politicians like our Founders, those like Thomas Jefferson, who brought down the national deficit though making the Louisiana Purchase and engaging the U.S. in a war with Tripoli.

Is Norris suffering brain damage from all those kicks directed at his skull? I love Jefferson as much as anyone, but let's face it, despite all his big talk about financial prudence, Jefferson was a spendthrift:

In 1768 Thomas Jefferson started the construction of Monticello, a neoclassical mansion. Starting in childhood, Jefferson had always wanted to build a beautiful mountaintop home within site of Shadwell. Jefferson went greatly in debt on Monticello by spending lavishly to create a neoclassical environment, based on his study of the architect Andrea Palladio and The Orders.

...Although he was born into one of the wealthiest families in North America, Thomas Jefferson was deeply in debt when he died.

Jefferson's trouble began when his father-in-law died, and he and his brothers-in-law quickly divided the estate before its debts were settled. It made each of them liable for the whole amount due – which turned out to be more than they expected.

Jefferson sold land before the American Revolution to pay off the debts, but by the time he received payment, the paper money was worthless amid the skyrocketing inflation of the war years. Cornwallis ravaged Jefferson's plantation during the war, and British creditors resumed their collection efforts when the conflict ended. Jefferson suffered another financial setback when he cosigned notes for a relative who reneged on debts in the financial Panic of 1819. Only Jefferson's public stature prevented creditors from seizing Monticello and selling it out from under him during his lifetime.