Yes, Bush got the ball rolling, but his deficit crimes were mere misdemeanors, and Obama is the felon:
(From First Things, in a post about the president's too-little, too-late proposal for business tax cuts. And before you point it out, yes, I see the surpluses in the Clinton years.)
Comments
Leo do not trust the CBO on deficit numbers. I have not seen one they have gotten correct. I thought maybe they went calendar year and then went fiscal year, but I have never been able to match their numbers. I use the US Treasury Web site that identifies the national debt each day. There has not been a budget surplus since 1957!
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/pd_debtposactrpt.htm
Here are the year end debts. Does anyone see a surplus?
date national debt deficit
9/30/1993 $4,411,488,883,139
9/30/1994 $4,692,749,910,013 $281,261,026,874
9/30/1995 $4,973,982,900,709 $281,232,990,696
9/30/1996 $5,224,810,939,136 $250,828,038,426
9/30/1997 $5,413,146,011,397 $188,335,072,262
9/30/1998 $5,526,193,008,898 $113,046,997,500
9/30/1999 $5,656,270,901,633 $130,077,892,736
9/30/2000 $5,674,178,209,887 $17,907,308,253
9/30/2001 $5,807,463,412,200 $133,285,202,313
9/30/2002 $6,228,235,965,597 $420,772,553,397
9/30/2003 $6,783,231,062,744 $554,995,097,146
9/30/2004 $7,379,052,696,330 $595,821,633,587
9/30/2005 $7,932,709,661,724 $553,656,965,393
9/30/2006 $8,506,973,899,215 $574,264,237,492
9/30/2007 $9,007,653,372,262 $500,679,473,047
9/30/2008 $10,024,724,896,912 $1,017,071,524,650
9/30/2009 $11,909,829,003,512 $1,885,104,106,599
9/7/2010 $13,438,770,879,031 $1,528,941,875,519