How Much Money Did Obama Cost This Nation

President Donald Trump claimed Feb. fifteen that quondam President Barack Obama "put on more debt on this state than every president in the history of our country combined."

Verdict: Truthful

Public debt more doubled in the 8 years of Obama'south presidency, ascent from $six.3 trillion to $14.4 trillion. Gross federal debt – which includes the amount owed to Social Security and other authorities accounts – nearly, but did not quite, double.

Fact Cheque:

Trump held a press briefing February. 15 at the White Business firm to declare a national emergency at the southern border. After his remarks, Trump took questions from reporters, including one about his plan to combat the growing national debt.

Trump said economic "growth will straighten it out" and criticized Obama's management of the debt. "When I took over, nosotros had 1 man that put on more debt than every other president combined," he said.

The national debt can exist divided into 2 parts – the amount owed to the public, including private citizens, foreign governments and international investors, and what'due south known equally intragovernmental holdings, the amount owed to the Social Security Trust Fund and other government accounts.

While the national debt has been increasing for decades due to near-annual budget deficits, it grew dramatically under Obama, increasing from $ten.half dozen trillion in January 2009 to $nineteen.9 trillion in January 2017, according to Treasury Section figures.

This is the largest dollar increase under any one president by a considerable margin, merely non quite as large as the debt Obama inherited. The U.S. added $nine.three trillion over his eight years in part, $1.iii trillion brusque of doubling. Under President George Westward. Bush, the debt rose by just under $5 trillion – the second-largest increase of any president.

The public debt, which accounts for nearly iii-quarters of the national debt, did double under Obama, increasing from $6.3 trillion to $14.4 trillion.

When asked for comment, the White House did non specify what measure out of debt Trump was citing, but economists often speak of public, as opposed to full, debt. "We and other economists tend to prefer 'debt held by the public,' which excludes debts the authorities owes to itself," Patrick Newton, a spokesperson for the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB), told The Daily Caller News Foundation in an email.

What caused the national debt to balloon under Obama?

Too wartime spending in Iraq and Transitional islamic state of afghanistan, the Keen Recession took a major toll. As tax revenues declined and federal spending rose on safety-net programs similar unemployment insurance and food stamps, the deficit regularly topped $i trillion a year.

Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Human action, a fiscal stimulus package that increased the deficit past $827 billion between 2009 and 2014 through a combination of taxation cuts and federal spending, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).

Bush-era tax cuts, extended and and then made largely permanent under Obama, besides contributed to the debt. The Budget Control Act, on the other hand, reigned in deficit spending.

Newton said that Congress shares responsibleness for the debt incurred nether Obama. "It'south unfair to attribute the increase entirely to Obama. It'south Congress that writes revenue enhancement and spending laws. The President has picayune ability on their own to touch on the debt," he told TheDCNF in an e-mail.

He pointed out that the debt was already projected to increment before Obama assumed office. Robert Bixby, executive managing director of the Concord Coalition, a group that advocates for fiscal responsibility, made the same bespeak, citing federal spending on baby boomers as 1 case. "During Obama'due south first term, the baby boomer generation begin[s] to qualify for total Social Security benefits and Medicare at age 65. Spending on these programs went up as more beneficiaries began to qualify for benefits," he told TheDCNF in an email.

While Trump has been critical of Obama'due south management of the debt, it has continued to grow quickly under his watch. In Trump's first two years in office, the debt has grown from $19.9 trillion to $22 trillion. The CBO projects that the debt will grow to $23.5 trillion by 2020 and will exceed $30 trillion by 2026.

The CRFB warns that if the debt continues to rise, the U.Due south. volition be at risk of a fiscal crisis and may exist forced to make significant tax hikes and spending cuts.

Managing director of National Intelligence Dan Coats issued a similar warning final year while testifying in front of the Senate Intelligence Committee. "This situation is unsustainable equally I remember we all know, and represents a dire threat to our economic and national security," he said.

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Source: https://checkyourfact.com/2019/02/26/fact-check-obama-debt-presidents-combined-double/

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