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Originally Posted by Guest
There are three different ways to look at the debt increase during an administration and depending who's side you're on you'll either look at the most favorable or the most unfavorable. Like I said, even though we give the president blame or credit, debt comes from Congress spending more than they take in.
On January 20, 2009, when President Obama was sworn in, the debt was $10.626 trillion. On January 20, 2017, when he left, it was $19.947 trillion. That's almost double.
That is very simply how much the debt rose during the Obama administration. How much of that he was responsible for is a matter of discussion. Even though Congress is responsible for all of the spending the president still to sign the bills. Now a lot of different factors come into play here. Does the same party hold the Congress and the White House? Were bills passed with a clear veto-proof majority?
You can make numbers look like whatever you want, but the fact is that the debt grew almost as much in the eight years of the Obama presidency than it did for the previous two hundred and forty years of the nation.
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Debt is not a stand alone number. You have to look at it in relation to GDP i.e. the size of the economy, and whether there were major catastrophes, recession, war, etc. Two companies could each have debt of $100. If one country earns $1 million, the debt of $100 is nothing. If the other country earns $200, the $100 debt is a big deal. The President does not have control over all the debt. For example, Obama inherited war costs from Bush that went on for years. And an obstructionist republican congress didn't help either. Obama wanted to raise taxes on the wealthy which Congress wouldn't enact, which would have reduced the deficit. Nor did a recession help, the biggest one since the great Depression. That was huge - the recession caused a massive decline in government revenues, and that started a year before Obama took office. And of course, the recession caused extra expenditures such as unemployment insurance. And comparing debt from 240 years ago is not comparing apples with oranges, due to inflation. Lastly, had there not been a burst of spending under Bush, the budget surplus would have been available to help out during the recession. Instead, Bush used it to pay for the unpopular war. Remember "weapons of mass destruction"?