National Debt has increased more under Obama than under Bush

CBS

(CBS News) The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency.

The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office.

The latest posting from the Bureau of Public Debt at the Treasury Department shows the National Debt now stands at $15.566 trillion. It was $10.626 trillion on President Bush's last day in office, which coincided with President Obama's first day.

The National Debt also now exceeds 100% of the nation's Gross Domestic Product, the total value of goods and services.

Mr. Obama has been quick to blame his predecessor for the soaring Debt, saying Mr. Bush paid for two wars and a Medicare prescription drug program with borrowed funds.

The federal budget sent to Congress last month by Mr. Obama, projects the National Debt will continue to rise as far as the eye can see. The budget shows the Debt hitting $16.3 trillion in 2012, $17.5 trillion in 2013 and $25.9 trillion in 2022.

Federal budget records show the National Debt once topped 121% of GDP at the end of World War II. The Debt that year, 1946, was, by today's standards, a mere $270 billion dollars.

Mr. Obama doesn't mention the National Debt much, though he does want to be seen trying to reduce the annual budget deficit, though it's topped a trillion dollars for four years now.

As part of his "Win the Future" program, Mr. Obama called for "taking responsibility for our deficits, by cutting wasteful, excessive spending wherever we find it."

His latest budget projects a $1.3 trillion deficit this year declining to $901 billion in 2012, and then annual deficits in the range of $500 billion to $700 billion in the 10 years to come.

If Mr. Obama wins re-election, and his budget projections prove accurate, the National Debt will top $20 trillion in 2016, the final year of his second term. That would mean the Debt increased by 87 percent, or $9.34 trillion, during his two terms.

[vincentpricenut2]

National Dept? What? Then why are we starving and killing each other over a dollar? WERE IS ALL THIS MONEY? It's not my dept and probably not your dept so were is all this food and cloths and cars and houses and...Living so well with such a large Dept. Yep, Livin Large. All of us thats why we have to pay. The whole world thinks we are rich that's why they hate us yes Hate Us and it's not are fault!

[Sweetie3463]

JAN. 3, 2007
The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was January 3rd 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, the start of the 110th Congress. The Democratic Party gained a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault," think about this:
January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!
Remember that day...
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5% GDP and 4.6% Unemployment...to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 times to stop Fannie & Freddie -starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy).Barney blocked it and called it a "Chicken Little Philosophy" (and the sky did fall!)

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA

And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY!!!!

So when someone tries to blame Bush...
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007....THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"

Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were driving the economy into the ditch.

Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.

Andwhere was Barack Obama during this time?He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period:

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is, "I inherited a deficit that I voted for,
And then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th, 2009."

[JayJBow]

Sweetie,
You're forgetting some very important points.
These great jobs you're crediting to Bush economic policies were mostly due to the housing boom. Not a result of any specific Bush policies. Cheap money and loose lending fueled lots of idiots to spend beyond reason on homes.
Also, what about Bush and his prescription drug expenses. Oh yeah.
Also, what about those two wars? Didn't those contribute a little to the debt? They weren't free after all. You're right, they weren't in the budget. Doesn't mean they didn't contribute to the debt.
If you want to compare percentages of debt accumulated by each president, Bush still comes out ahead.
So you're saying the two wars Obama inherited didn't have anything to do with the rising debt under Obama's watch? And you're saying the Bush tax cuts (trickle-down pixie dust) didn't contribute to the rising debt under Obama's watch?
Get a clue. Go look up some graphs on the debts during each president and congress. You'll see that Bush nearly doubled it. At the current pace, Obama won't double it. That may open your eyes to whether this supply-side economics hocus pocus does what Reagan and GW claim it does.

[Shannon1926]

OK, first off Barney Frank did not block any "reforms" by Bush. He couldn't have, because he simply didn't have the clout - he was in a minority party at the time. And no, he didn't fillibuster it either - no reforms ever made it out of Republican committees to fillibuster.

And no, Bush still had the veto pen. Just look up what happened to SCHIP despite being passed by Congress and the Senate.

The fact is, when the Democrats took the Senate and Congress, the subprime crisis was already coming to a boil - it was too late for the Democrats to stop it, even with the Republicans fighting them tooth and nail.

52 months of job growth my eye. Bush was the first president since Herbert Hoover to lose jobs in his first term. Funny how you right-wingers always tend to forget about that first recession.

The fact is, Bush inherited a surplus and a healthy economy. He turned it into a huge deficit and the greatest financial mess since the Great Depression - not to mention two recessions. Obama is perfectly right to blame Bush, it's going to take at least another term to clean up his mess, especially with Congress fighting him for the sake of fighting him.

[Sweetie3463]

JAN. 3, 2007
The day the Democrats took over was not January 22nd 2009, it was January 3rd 2007, the day the Democrats took over the House of Representatives and the Senate, the start of the 110th Congress. The Democratic Party gained a majority in both chambers for the first time since the end of the 103rd Congress in 1995.

For those who are listening to the liberals propagating the fallacy that everything is "Bush's Fault," think about this:
January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!
Remember that day...
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5% GDP and 4.6% Unemployment...to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 times to stop Fannie & Freddie -starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy).Barney blocked it and called it a "Chicken Little Philosophy" (and the sky did fall!)

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA

And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY!!!!

So when someone tries to blame Bush...
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007....THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"

Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were driving the economy into the ditch.

Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.

Andwhere was Barack Obama during this time?He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period:

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is, "I inherited a deficit that I voted for,
And then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th, 2009."

[ComicMikeG]

When GW Bush took office the National Debt was $5,662,216,013,697 when he left office it was $10,699,804,864,612.. He grew the National Debt by 15% his last year in office. The National Debt now stands at $15,856,367,214,324 and has been growing at a DRASTICALLY slow rate since he took office, in fact the dept only grew by a little over 4% over the past year.. Our Debt grew over 5% each year Bush was in office and as I stated before it grew over 15% his last year in office.. Why would CBS news not report that? because it makes Obama look good PERIOD..

[Sweetie3463]

does the fact that Democrats took control of house and senate in 2007 mean anything? January 3rd, 2007, the day the Democrats took over the Senate and the Congress:
The DOW Jones closed at 12,621.77
The GDP for the previous quarter was 3.5%
The Unemployment rate was 4.6%
George Bush's Economic policies SET A RECORD of 52 STRAIGHT MONTHS of JOB CREATION!
Remember that day...
January 3rd, 2007 was the day that Barney Frank took over the House Financial Services Committee and Chris Dodd took over the Senate Banking Committee.
The economic meltdown that happened 15 months later was in what part of the economy?
BANKING AND FINANCIAL SERVICES!
THANK YOU DEMOCRATS (especially Barney) for taking us from 13,000 DOW, 3.5% GDP and 4.6% Unemployment...to this CRISIS by (among MANY other things) dumping 5-6 TRILLION Dollars of toxic loans on the economy from YOUR Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac FIASCOES!

(BTW: Bush asked Congress 17 times to stop Fannie & Freddie -starting in 2001 because it was financially risky for the US economy).Barney blocked it and called it a "Chicken Little Philosophy" (and the sky did fall!)

And who took the THIRD highest pay-off from Fannie Mae AND Freddie Mac? OBAMA

And who fought against reform of Fannie and Freddie?
OBAMA and the Democrat Congress, especially BARNEY!!!!

So when someone tries to blame Bush...
REMEMBER JANUARY 3rd, 2007....THE DAY THE DEMOCRATS TOOK OVER!"

Bush may have been in the car but the Democrats were in charge of the gas pedal and steering wheel they were driving the economy into the ditch.

Budgets do not come from the White House. They come from Congress and the party that controlled Congress since January 2007 is the Democratic Party.

Furthermore, the Democrats controlled the budget process for 2008 & 2009 as well as 2010 & 2011.

In that first year, they had to contend with George Bush, which caused them to compromise on spending, when Bush somewhat belatedly got tough on spending increases.

For 2009 though, Nancy Pelosi & Harry Reid bypassed George Bush entirely, passing continuing resolutions to keep government running until Barack Obama could take office. At that time, they passed a massive omnibus spending bill to complete the 2009 budget.

Andwhere was Barack Obama during this time?He was a member of that very Congress that passed all of these massive spending bills, and he signed the omnibus bill as President to complete 2009. Let's remember what the deficits looked like during that period:

If the Democrats inherited any deficit, it was the 2007 deficit, the last of the Republican budgets. That deficit was the lowest in five years, and the fourth straight decline in deficit spending. After that, Democrats in Congress took control of spending, and that includes Barack Obama, who voted for the budgets.

If Obama inherited anything, he inherited it from himself.

In a nutshell, what Obama is saying is, "I inherited a deficit that I voted for,
And then I voted to expand that deficit four-fold since January 20th, 2009."
ya.....

[zebra62]

Holy cow. This is not news!!!! The real news in this is that CBS is now talking about the massive debt problem and continuing deficits after he gets re-elected. Should have been pushing this button for the last four years. Another media protection mode for the first term president.

[hypnotoad72]

Interest on existing debt...

And, gee whiz, having to pay for roads and infrastructure? Nobody bothered to pay before, but then everything deteriorated... so then it had cost more to fix.

Lost on the downsides of reality much, folks?

P.S. http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/obamas-and-bushs-effect-on-the-deficit-in-one-graph/2011/07/25/gIQAELOrYI_blog.html
Outdated, but not inaccurate...

[username102]

hi The budget deficit grows when americans dont get along. when americans argue they cannot work and make products in exchange for money. agreeability is 1 of 5 important personality characteristics. money represents an agreement. american tv shows nowadays have a lot of that stevewilkosjerrymaurydivorcecourt etc. people think fighting is the norm in america. when we disagree we feel "poor". brain scans show that when we agree it uses the same part of the brain as receiving wealth. money represents an agreement. you fight you feel poor. no teamwork job does not get done so we borrow everything from peopl who get along china japan korea and our debt soars. religion or christianity teaches us to agree and work as a team no lying stealing love yourself as others dont cheat etc.

[username102]

your first response to this message would probably to be angry. you may have assumed by instinct that im mean and trying to fight and disagree with you or your beliefs you were ready to fight even before you read it werent you? why not re-read what i wrote again.

[tomanyt]

Username102...LOL. What?

[username102]

hi

[justacog]

I like how you confuse most American's by stating what the national debt was on President Obama's first day in office. Do you really think President Obama on his first day in office he submitted and passed a federal budget for the year 2009 in one day? The last Bush budget was for the year 2009 which added 1.4 trillion dollars to the national debt. So the actual numbers are Bush added 6.299 trillion to the debt and Obama has add 3.539 to the national debt not to mention Bush caused the great recession, which would of been a Great Depression had he been able to privatize Social Security. Way to Fox news it CBS I guess you are another news source that doesn't check their facts.

[pistos1]

Then that same rule should apply to President Bush, so those first year debts should revert back to Clinton. When Bush came into office the economy was on a downswing that could properly be called the Clinton recession, and if you're going to use the left-wing canard that Bush caused "the great recession," then under Jimmy Carter it must have been "the super great recession" since the economy was even worse under Carter until President Reagan fixed it.

As for privatizing Social Security, Bush's plan was to save it as opposed to Obama's plan to destroy it by reducing the payroll taxes that fund it while not replacing those lost revenues with anything. Just like he robbed Medicare of $750 billion to help fund Obamacare.

[cr411]

I believe you meant Americans (plural, not possessive).

Look at the unemployment numbers from the last ten years. They speak for themselves. News outlets (such as CBS) made statements regarding the slow Bush economy even in the middle of his term as president. However, the numbers prove otherwise.

I find it interesting that Democrats run on a platform saying Rebulicans do not care about the common man/middle class, yet when Republicans pass bills that add to the debt to "help" those people, it is deemed irresponsible. The same legislation passed by Democrats is touted as social justice.

Yet another reason why I have changed my voter registration from Democrat to Independent. I am tired of the leftist rhetoric that shows no interest in self-reflection and criticism of their own policies. There is no way "Forward" Mr. President, in any situation, if you cannot do that.

[lesliemart30]

It will be important that people stay in school. it will help in the long run interpret data. Americans don't do very well in Math and that makes it harder for them to understand or analyze data. It's all in the Math.

Simple questions you should ask yourselves.
look at the budget. see where the goes. see if Obama wired the money to his brothers in Africa. find out how the spending got to those trillions. do research . don't just talk
The problem with Mark Knoller is that he does research on the surface. he needs to do research from bottom up. it could be a big story if he went an extra mile