# Did Obama add 6 trillion to the deficit? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 22, 2012, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266 "2012-01-22T02:06:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![FixMyIgnorance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FixMyIgnorance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FixMyIgnorance)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/21 "2012-01-23T16:01:11Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I think it bear mentioning that the largest part of the deficit is the result of a slow economy which reduces tax revenue and increases social safety net spending (e.g. food stamps and unemployment). > > What you want to do is look at how much Obama’s policies have increased the deficit over baseline versus how much previous presidents (I know the Republicans have disowned Bush after voting for him twice but I’m not inclined to let them) have increased the deficit over baseline. > > Republican presidents have increased the deficit over baseline since Reagan. Most of this increase has come from tax cuts without corresponding spending cuts but a lot of it has come from wars and in the Bush presidency, things like medicare drug coverage. This was how I saw things too. It seemed like much of the deficit was caused primarily by automatic spending that was in response to unemployment, plus a lot of the unfunded spending done during the Bush years. Makes me wonder why the Republicans come out and outright accuse Obama of his spending when so much of it is demonstrably not his fault. A lot of the same Republicans voted for the policies during the Bush years that now contribute to large portions of the deficit. ---
**Author:** ![Linden\_Arden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/53a042/32.png) [@Linden\_Arden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Linden_Arden)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/22 "2012-01-23T16:06:35Z")
Here is a good chart on the source of debt over the last decade: [http://www.whitehouse.gov/infographics/us-national-debt?utm\_source=wh.gov&utm\_medium=shorturl&utm\_campaign=shorturl](http://www.whitehouse.gov/infographics/us-national-debt?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl) ---
**Author:** ![puddleglum](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puddleglum/32/137_2.png) [@puddleglum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puddleglum)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/23 "2012-01-23T18:25:00Z")
> [@Linden\_Arden](#): > > Here is a good chart on the source of debt over the last decade: > > [http://www.whitehouse.gov/infographics/us-national-debt?utm\_source=wh.gov&utm\_medium=shorturl&utm\_campaign=shorturl](http://www.whitehouse.gov/infographics/us-national-debt?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl) Obama is the commander in chief, he can end the wars anytime he wants to. His party had control over both houses of congress, if he wanted to repeal the Bush tax cuts, the medicare drug benefits, and the education spending increases he could have done so. The fact that the programs were started under Bush when the fiscal environment was much different does not absolve Obama from responsibility. All of the spending and tax cutting since 2009 has been done by laws bearing his signature. If he can control the rise of the oceans and heal our planet, passing a budget when he had control of both houses of congress should have been a cake walk. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/24 "2012-01-23T18:32:42Z")
So you are willing to give Clinton full responsibility for the balanced budgets, and tote up $2T to Reagan and $6.6T to GWB? Like I said, this is the easy and stupid answer. ---
**Author:** ![FixMyIgnorance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FixMyIgnorance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FixMyIgnorance)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/25 "2012-01-23T18:44:37Z")
I don’t think the President has the absolute power to just null out everything Bush enacted into policy ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/26 "2012-01-23T18:45:37Z")
Do Americans actually believe their president controls their congress? And presumably that the vice-president runs the Senate? ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/27 "2012-01-23T18:48:10Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Do Americans actually believe their president controls their congress? And presumably that the vice-president runs the Senate? Well, the further North you get, the more likely you are to believe the latter 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/28 "2012-01-23T18:48:10Z")
> [@PrettyVacant](#): > > Hence the down rating from triple A. Well, IIRC the willingness of much of the Republican House to let the US default instead of raising the debt ceiling had a lot to do with that. The financial markets are still assigning a very low level of risk, and thus a very low interest rate, to federal debt. ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/29 "2012-01-23T18:51:47Z")
Yeah, that whole debt down-rating thing has done fuck-all to the actual cost of US debt as far as I can tell. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/30 "2012-01-23T18:52:58Z")
> [@Stratocaster](#): > > Yes, you are understanding exactly right, according to the commandments of this message board. In fact, Obama really fought all that spending, now that I think of it. If only those a-hole Republicans would have listened. If they had, then there would never have been an additional $6 trillion in debt. It’s their obstructionism. Always is. As furt and Byran point out, the $6 trillion was inevitable, once the Republicans decided to render government useless and bicker with the president, or something like that. It is too bad that Obama and the Dems prevented a rise in taxes for the rich, isn’t it. Then Romney might have had to pay 18%. The horror. Cutting back on unemployment payments would do wonders for the economy, wouldn’t it? And food stamps. Newt obviously believes that food stamps are so much fun to get that poor people refuse the plentiful jobs out there just so they can collect them. ---
**Author:** ![FixMyIgnorance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FixMyIgnorance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FixMyIgnorance)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/31 "2012-01-23T18:53:40Z")
It had everything to do with the fact that our government portrayed itself as incompetent, ineffective, absurd, and self-destructive. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/32 "2012-01-23T19:18:35Z")
> [@FixMyIgnorance](#): > > I don’t think the President has the absolute power to just null out everything Bush enacted into policy So Bush could do it, but Obama and the Democratic-controlled Congress is powerless to undo it? I don’t see how that works - the Democrats had a larger majority in Congress than the GOP had during the Bush administration. I think the rule of thumb is that a President has no choice besides increasing a deficit, if he inherits a recession. And the last thing you want to do in a recession is over is cut taxes. So Bush is to blame for the deficit. He inherited a recession and increased the deficit, and cut taxes. That’s a Bad Thing, of course, especially with increased spending. But Obama is not to blame for the deficit. He inherited a recession, and increased the deficit, and cut taxes. And this is a Good Thing, because he also increased spending. See how simple? Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/33 "2012-01-23T19:28:15Z")
> [@puddleglum](#): > > Obama is the commander in chief, he can end the wars anytime he wants to. And 180,000 troops just find their own way home? > [@](#): > > His party had control over both houses of congress, if he wanted to repeal the Bush tax cuts, the medicare drug benefits, and the education spending increases he could have done so. The fact that the programs were started under Bush when the fiscal environment was much different does not absolve Obama from responsibility. So I can blame Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security on Republicans? Seems fair, they didn’t repeal them when they had the chance. ---
**Author:** ![FixMyIgnorance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FixMyIgnorance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FixMyIgnorance)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/34 "2012-01-23T19:42:39Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > [Bush] inherited a recession Wait, what? Didn’t Clinton leave us with a surplus…? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/35 "2012-01-23T19:45:13Z")
Technically there was a recession from March 2001 until Nov 2001. I guess you could call that “inheriting”. The recent recession was Dec 2007 until June 2009. Either way just toting everything that happened during one president’s term and lumping all of it (or none of it) on his plate is lazy and meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/36 "2012-01-23T20:07:05Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > So Bush is to blame for the deficit. He inherited a recession and increased the deficit, and cut taxes. That’s a Bad Thing, of course, especially with increased spending. > > But Obama is not to blame for the deficit. He inherited a recession, and increased the deficit, and cut taxes. And this is a Good Thing, because he also increased spending. > > See how simple? > > Regards, > Shodan You are forgetting the 2003 - 2007 period. Bush cutting taxes in 2001 was reasonable, even if it could be argued that his tax cuts were not optimal for improving the economy. But there was eventually job growth - and he neither increased taxes, which is reasonable in a strong economy, while dramatically increasing spending on the Wars and Medicare, which is stupid. I’m all for increasing taxes on the rich now, which would have little negative impact on the economy, and increasing taxes on everyone when unemployment falls to some reasonable level and we are growing strongly. Might I remind you that Reagan increased taxes when it made sense. ---
**Author:** ![FixMyIgnorance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7feea3/32.png) [@FixMyIgnorance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FixMyIgnorance)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/37 "2012-01-23T20:19:39Z")
When does it make sense to raise/lower taxes? ---
**Author:** ![Jas09](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d07c76/32.png) [@Jas09](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jas09)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/38 "2012-01-23T21:50:27Z")
> [@FixMyIgnorance](#): > > When does it make sense to raise/lower taxes? Wow. That is a question for another thread (perhaps many). And you have to identify _which_ taxes. But with the broadest brush, Keynsian fiscal policy would say raise taxes during expansionary cycles and cut taxes during contraction cycles. So basically once we get back to robust growth we should sunset the payroll tax cut and phase out the Bush-era income tax cuts. This should help moderate the boom/bust cycle while dramatically reducing the federal deficit. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/39 "2012-01-23T22:25:10Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > You are forgetting the 2003 - 2007 period. No, actually I am not. The deficit in 2003 was [$374 billion](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._budget_deficit); in 2007 it was [$158 billion](http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/31/magazines/fortune/deficit_sloan.fortune/index.htm). Bush achieved what Obama promised and failed to do - reducing the deficit by half. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![nate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nate/32/13085_2.png) [@nate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nate)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2012, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266/40 "2012-01-23T23:06:24Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > No, actually I am not. The deficit in 2003 was [$374 billion](http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=U.S._budget_deficit); in 2007 it was [$158 billion](http://money.cnn.com/2007/08/31/magazines/fortune/deficit_sloan.fortune/index.htm). Bush achieved what Obama promised and failed to do - reducing the deficit by half. > > Regards, > Shodan Going by your calculation method, we had a [$236B surplus](http://www.cbo.gov/budget/data/historical.pdf) in 2000. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/did-obama-add-6-trillion-to-the-deficit/610266.md?page=3)