President Coolidge was a notorious spendthrift. He absolutely hated spending any money; either ours in taxes or any of his own. He was also known as Silent Cal, never saying much of anything anywhere at anytime if he could help it. Famously a woman had come up to him and stated that she bet her friend that she could get him to say more than two words to her. His answer? “You lose”.
One wag remarked that Coolidge looked like he had been weaned on a pickle. LOL
As for Harding, the book to read is Shadow of Blooming Grove, a book so controversial that the Harding family of today got passages of the book suppressed. Nan Brittan’s book, the President’s Daughter, was heavily suppressed at the time, too.
Tea Pot Dome was the scandal Harding is best remembered for, although he likely knew nothing about it at the time. His personal life, however, has to be read to be believed.
Although he was lovingly generous with his wife, Grace, the finest First Lady of the 20th Century until Nancy Reagan, your point stands. Even when occupying lowly political positions in Northampton, MA, with equally modest pay, he was able to save a little bit every year. He hated debt. His personal fiscal Conservatism was applied to the country as a whole with the remarkable years of true prosperity and a balanced budget. He also had the benefit of trusted adviser Andrew W. Mellon, Secretary of the Treasury.
Yankee has now become a pejorative term especially for those of us fond of Dixie but there was a time when "Yankee Conservatism" was not an oxymoron. The irony that Vermonter Calvin Coolidge is buried in the state that has given hussein stunning majorities in both 2008 (67.8%) and 2012 (67.0%) is noteworthy. And adding further to the ironies of history is that an out-and-out declared Socialist, Barnie Sanders, is senator from Coolidge's beloved home state.
When C-Span was doing their First Ladies series a few years back, I happened to catch the Grace Coolidge episode. Definately one of my favorite first ladies. Class and Distinction... a genuine Lady.