Deficit & Debt: The Republican Legacy

The pablum, the bile, the lies that we are getting from the Republicans and their right-wing storytellers, supported too often by the mainstream media, have put the entire federal deficit and debt onto Barack Obama's shoulders. Well, here's the truth ...

Bush Elected $850 billion SURPLUS
Bush Re-Elected $415 billion DEFICIT
Bush Finishes $1.2 trillion DEFICIT

U.S. Budget History
Jan'01: Bush Becomes President
$850 billion SURPLUS

Nov'04: Bush Re-Elected
$415 billion DEFICIT

Jan'09: Obama Becomes Pres.
$1.2 trillion DEFICIT

Republican Debt Legacy
Ronald Reagan (1981-1989)
Started: $1.6 trillion debt
Finished: $3.0 trillion debt

George H.W. Bush (1989-1993)
Started: $3.0 trillion debt
Finished: $4.3 trillion debt

George W. Bush (2001-2009)
Started: $5.8 trillion debt
Finished: $10.8 trillion debt

As Bush Jr. turned an $850 billion budget surplus into a $1.2 trillion dollar deficit, he became responsible, alone, for about 42% of the current national debt.

Sources:
Wall Street Journal / November 25, 2009
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125911304434363357.html
Washington Post / June 9, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/10/business/economy/10leonhardt.html

 

Comments

[Averal]

10:44 AM on 11/27/2009

Interesting article, but you could have gone back even further.
WW2 left the nation in nearly twice as much relative debt as if finds itself in today. For over 30 years that debt was greatly reduced and the trend was downward. Then Ronald Reagan was elected president. According to the charts that is when deficit spending took hold. It declined briefly during the Clinton administration, then took off again under Bush. How does this jibe with Republican complaints about deficits?