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Obama’s Record on the Federal Debt is Worse (than Bush’s)

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In his speech last week on the budget, President Obama blamed his predecessor for creating the massive deficits which plague us today:

But after Democrats and Republicans committed to fiscal discipline during the 1990s, we lost our way in the decade that followed.  We increased spending dramatically for two wars and an expensive prescription drug program -– but we didn’t pay for any of this new spending.  Instead, we made the problem worse with trillions of dollars in unpaid-for tax cuts -– tax cuts that went to every millionaire and billionaire in the country; tax cuts that will force us to borrow an average of $500 billion every year over the next decade.

To give you an idea of how much damage this caused to our nation’s checkbook, consider this:  In the last decade, if we had simply found a way to pay for the tax cuts and the prescription drug benefit, our deficit would currently be at low historical levels in the coming years.

But that’s not what happened.  And so, by the time I took office, we once again found ourselves deeply in debt and unprepared for a Baby Boom retirement that is now starting to take place.  When I took office, our projected deficit, annually, was more than $1 trillion.

What he didn’t mention is that when he took office, his party had had majorities in both houses of Congress for the preceding two years, with him serving in the upper chamber.  Under Democratic leadership, the annual increase in federal spending jumped considerably. The federal deficit which had been declining for three straight years when Republicans controlled the executive and legislative branches, skyrocketed.

Nor did the president mention that while “the debt during Bush’s eight years in office increased from $5.7 trillion to $10.6 trillion, or $4.9 trillion over eight years“, it has increased at an even greater rate since the Democrat replaced the much maligned Republican in the White House:

. . . in the less than three years Obama has been in office, the debt has increased from $10.6 trillion to $14.2 trillion, a $3.6 trillion increase in about 27 months.  In other words, Obama is increasing the debt by $1.6 trillion per year, three times as fast as Bush.

This is not to excuse Bush and the 108th and 109th Republican Congresses.  After all, as we said repeatedly on this blog at that time, they didn’t do enough to rein in out-of-control federal spending, but to remind you that while “Bush’s record on increasing the national debt is bad . . . Obama’s is worse.“

Comments

  1. Gee, who would have guessed that massively expanding Government spending while attacking private sector economic growth would be bad fiscal policy?

    Yes, Bush unwisely expanded Government spending, but at least he didn’t shackle the private sector with massive new financial, environmental, and labor regulations.

  2. Does anyone laugh at President Obama trying to desperately to blame President Bush for Obama’s Porkulus, ObamaCare, & raising the debt ceiling 4 times? Obama is gasping for air.

  3. Is Obama Alfred E. Neuman (“Who, Me?”) Or Waldo?

    Such leadership – to preside over year after year of $1.5 trillion deficits, and try to blame them on your precedessor’s (admittedly wrong) deficts of a mere few hundred billions.

  5. ILC, I can’t argue that. I was willing to give Obama a pass on the first budget deficit, because my belief is that the predecessor’s administration is partly responsible for the first budget numbers that come out with the new president, and maybe a pass for the second one. But now it’s all him. He has the power to use his veto pen if a budget is passed by Congress that yields too high a deficit. Bush cannot be blamed anymore for the current deficit. If Obama is not qualified to fix the mess that he’s blamed on Bush, then perhaps he ought to not run for re-election.

  6. Pat, just for more color on that…

    My understanding is that, given the Continuing Resolution that the Democratic Congress gave to Bush – because they would not let Bush sign, or veto, the FY2009 budget – and given the recession, Obama inherited a deficit of roughly $1 trillion. In January 2009 with the FY2009 budget still open, Obama could have trimmed it – for example by trimming the bailouts, or he could have let it be, or he could have increased it. He chose to increase it.

    So, for purposes of Obama’s first year, I say that he inherited “only” a $1 trillion deficit and chose to jack it up to $1.5T. And since then, as you point out, he has chosen to keep it up.

    The argument from the Paul Krugmans of the world is that he has no choice, it should be higher, blah blah blah. I disagree strongly, starting with the fact that of course Obama had/has a choice. Even if he has made the right policy choice (and I believe he certainly has not), it’s still his policy choice.

  7. I was willing to give Obama a pass on the first budget deficit, because my belief is that the predecessor’s administration is partly responsible for the first budget numbers that come out with the new president, and maybe a pass for the second one.

    Actually, the last budget Bush had any influence was for fiscal year 2008, which was written in 2007. Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid stalled the 2009 budget until Obama was in office, and he signed it.

    So put bluntly, Obama owns everything during his tenure. His party deliberately blocked Bush from signing and completing any type of budget for Obama’s first year. Obama and the Obama Party are solely responsible for all budgets, all deficits, and all the out-of-control spending during Barack Obama’s term.

  8. NDT, well, good point that the Democrats in Congress had a LOT to do with the budget increases of FY2008. The last all-Republican budget was FY2007, and I believe its deficit was way down in the $100B range.

    Having said that, I don’t hold Bush guiltless. Bush allowed six years of substantial domestic spending increases (never vetoed a budget bill) before the Democrats took Congress. FY2007 was an aberration on the revenue side, the last year of the boom. Even following classical Keynesian prescriptions, Bush ought to have held spending well enough in check, the preceding six years, that FY2007 could have been a surplus year. (Run surpluses at the peak of the business cycle.)

    Also in the spring of 2008, as the economy began to recess, Bush proposed and endorsed $152 billion in new stimulus spending / tax rebates. Finally, in autumn 2008 as the financial crisis hit, Bush proposed the infamous bailouts (that Obama later sealed and delivered).

    So, as I said, Obama inherited a roughly $1T deficit – from the combination of his fellow Democrats, and Bush. And Obama made sure it got worse. And kept it worse. Etc.

  9. NDT, I forgot Pelosi & Reid held out on their budget until Obama officially became POTUS in 2009; therefore, Obama is even more silly blaming President Bush when Obama owns this disaster of deficit spending on steroids. Obama might as well blame himself, but this is something he will never do. The man-child never accepts failure as a option when it is his only option.

  11. So, for purposes of Obama’s first year, I say that he inherited “only” a $1 trillion deficit and chose to jack it up to $1.5T. And since then, as you point out, he has chosen to keep it up.

    ILC, that’s fair. The deficit was big enough, and Obama added to it.

  14. Same way I ‘pay for’ having to spend more money on gas. I cut elsewhere.

    I’m still waiting for Levi to troll along and explain that Obama’s deficits are better because they’re bigger, or brown, or articulate or something.