Federal Deficit and Debt – President Obama vs President Bush

If you look at these numbers you will see that the national debt has gone up every year since 1969 except the last four years of the Clinton administration budget:

Revenues, Outlays, Deficits, Surpluses, and Debt Held by the Public,

1968 to 2007, in Billions of Dollars

Sources: Congressional Budget Office; Office of Management and Budget.

Date         Deficit (-) or Surplus Debt Held by the Public

1968                 -25.2                             289.5

1969                 3.2                                278.1

1970                 -2.8                               283.2

1971                 -23.0                             303.0

1972                 -23.4                             322.4

1973                 -14.9                             340.9

1974                 -6.1                               343.7

1975                 -53.2                             394.7

1976                 -73.7                             477.4

1977                 -53.7                             549.1

1978                 -59.2                             607.1

1979                 -40.7                             640.3

1980                 -73.8                             711.9

1981                 -79.0                             789.4

1982                 -128.0                           924.6

1983                 -207.8                           1,137.3

1984                 -185.4                           1,307.0

1985                 -212.3                           1,507.3

1986                 -221.2                           1,740.6

1987                 -149.7                           1,889.8

1988                 -155.2                           2,051.6

1989                 -152.6                           2,190.7

1990                 -221.0                           2,411.6

1991                 -269.2                           2,689.0

1992                 -290.3                           2,999.7

1993                 -255.1                           3,248.4

1994                 -203.2                           3,433.1

1995                 -164.0                           3,604.4

1996                 -107.4                           3,734.1

1997                 -21.9                             3,772.3

1998                 69.3                              3,721.1

1999                 125.6                            3,632.4

2000                 236.2                            3,409.8

2001                 128.2                            3,319.6

2002                 -157.8                           3,540.4

2003                 -377.6                           3,913.4

2004                 -412.7                           4,295.5

2005                 -318.3                           4,592.2

2006                 -248.2                           4,829.0

2007                 -160.7                           5,035.1

http://www.cbo.gov/budget/data/historical.pdf

Federal Debt Under President George W. Bush

President Bush started with 3.3196 trillion dollars of public debt.

He left his 8 years (6 years with control of both branches of Congress) with 7.8111 trillion dollars of public debt.

This means the public debt increased 4.4915 trillion dollars during his administration.

Federal Debt Under President Obama

Here are the numbers for the Obama administration projected out to 21014:

Year Gross Debt in Billions as % of GDP Debt Held By Public ($Billions) as % of GDP
2010 (2 Sept) 13,442.1 92.1 (2nd Q) 8,933.2 61.2 (2nd Q)
2010 (est.) 14,456.3 98.1 9,881.9 67.1
2011 (est.) 15,673.9 101.0 10,873.1 70.1
2012 (est.) 16,565.7 100.6 11,468.4 69.6
2013 (est.) 17,440.2 99.7 12,027.1 68.7
2014 (est.) 18,350.0 99.8 12,594.8 68.5

 This means the public debt is estimated to increase under the Obama administration by 4.7837 trillion dollars.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_public_debt

Wikipedia can be unreliable but I checked out the numbers before I posted the link.  The chart is a little simpler to read but here is the official US Treasury Department numbers:

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo4.htm

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/histdebt/histdebt_histo5.htm

Projected (est.) Congressional Budget Office numbers come from this report:

http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/100xx/doc10014/03-20-PresidentBudget.pdf

Republican’s commonly complain that the surplus was due to Republican control of the Congress.  However, they do not point out that President Clinton did not have full control of the Congress for six years as President Bush did.

The Republicans took control (not a super majority) of the US House of Representatives in 1994 not the Senate.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections,_1994

In 1995 the Republicans took control of the Senate as well (not a super majority).

“In the 1996, 1998, and 2000 elections, Republicans lost Congressional seats but still retained control of the House and, more narrowly, the Senate. After the 2000 election, the Senate was divided evenly between the parties, with Republicans retaining the right to organize the Senate due to the election of Dick Cheney as Vice President and ex officio presiding officer of the Senate. The Senate shifted to control by the Democrats (though they technically were the plurality party as they were one short of a majority) after GOP senator Jim Jeffords changed party registration to “Independent” in June 2001, but later returned to Republican control after the November 2002 elections. In the 2006 elections, Democrats won both the House of Representatives (233 Democrats, 202 Republicans) and the Senate (49 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2 Independents caucusing with the Democrats) as well as the majority of state governorships (28-22).”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republican_Revolution

The Republicans had full control of the Executive and Congressional branches of government for six years and could not generate a surplus.  However, President Clinton did it for four years without having full control.

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