Posted by Jack
The following is an excerpt from the Washington Post, Dec. 2014. It asks the question, does Obama have the worst record of any president on the national debt? Let me deflate the suspense, the answer is a resounding no, but wait there is still a stunning revelation!
Wash-Post – “The problem is that the way Bush has done it over the last eight years is to take out a credit card from the Bank of China in the name of our children, driving up our national debt from $5 trillion for the first 42 presidents. Number 43 added $4 trillion by his lonesome, so that we now have over $9 trillion of debt that we are going to have to pay back — $30,000 for every man, woman and child. That’s irresponsible. It’s unpatriotic.” (In hindsight this is the pot calling the kettle black)
The article places the numbers into proper context-
“But measuring percentage changes in the debt/GDP ratio over time can be misleading because the GDP number is affected by the state of the economy, especially if the president suffers through a recession at the start of their term. Most recent presidents experienced robust annual GDP growth rates, compared with the flat line of Obama’s first years, which means the numerator in their calculation of GDP percentage grew much faster than the one used for Obama.
One alternative method looks at the dollar amount of the debt increase divided by the dollar amount of GDP at the end of each term. Obama’s numbers for the debt and GDP are only through Sept. 30, 2014, and thus should be considered a temporary figure, as an improving economy might boost the GDP and thus improve his ratio. At current trends, however, it is likely that Obama’s performance would be the worst among recent presidents, according to this calculation. (He would still trail Roosevelt and Wilson among presidents in the last hundred years.)
Debt increase* End-of-term GDP* Percentage
Reagan $1,873 $8,850 21%
GHW Bush 1,484 $9,410 16%
Clinton 1,268 $12,680 12%
GW Bush 4,899 $14,580 34%
Obama 7,198 $16,160 44% (end of article)
PS If you thought Obama was the worst ever, take some consolation that he scored worst among presidents since WWII. Roosevelt grew the debt by 1000% during WWII, but that really wasn’t his fault, there was a war to win and he pulled out all the stops to do it. I hope this will put an end to picking on Reagan and Bush, but probably not. Some people are going to be intractable, even in the face of the facts.
Pres Obama has two unfinished, unfunded wars to pay for.
Reagan inherited a decimated military from Carter. As the leader of our nation his sworn duty to uphold the Constitution and protect us from enemies foreign and domestic required that he strengthen our military. He did and won the cold war without firing a single shot!
Bush inherited the legacy of a reluctant Bill Clinton; 17 useless UN resolutions, Saddam firing on our jets in breach of a cease fire agreement, and 911. Bush managed to fund the war and still keep the debt to GDP ratio within averages for other presidents. Our recovery from the recession he inherited from Bill when the dotcom bubble burst was fairly swift, especially considering 911 happened!
President Obama has spent an equivalent amount on his war but he’s also done quite a lot to ensure that wars will continue for some time…he deserves the blame for the conditions we now find ourselves in, including a nuclear arms race in the ME and nukes soon to be in the hands of crazy religious zealots. This will be very costly for the world, and I’m not just talking money! By comparison Obama has overseen the longest non-recovery from a recession since the Great Depression with a third of our citizens out of the workforce and others working part time when they would like to work full time. He has created another big government entitlement program and they are the main driver of our national debt.
Assessment?
Lousy! Worse than lousy.
Obama has been against America since his first day in office and it looks like he’s going to leave having done his worst to us on every conceivable level. The nation has never been more racially divided in my lifetime! Our economy has never looked worse. Our debt is beyond belief! Prisons are bulging, hospitals are going broke, our best Generals are being fired and he’s brokered a deal that could lead to a nuclear arms race in the M-E. He’s lied and connived his way through office and he didn’t even have time to placate his liberal base with a few campaign promises.
On one front he has been very successful! He has “fundamentally transformed” America.
Do you think it could have something to do with his extremely radical roots?
“Do you think it could have something to do with his extremely radical roots?” Oh without any doubt, but it also has to do with his narcissistic personality. He thinks he has the answer to everything and that he is always the smartest guy in the room.
#5 Tina, The American Spectator article about the Obama Jarrett common roots was well written with supporting information.
I’ve always felt Jarrett was the brains behind Obama. She’s been the puppet master in control with Obama demonstrating his ineptness every time he goes off script or without his teleprompter.
Have to give her all due credit for accomplishing, along with other well placed individuals, the “transformation of America” Obama said he was about to begin.
They didn’t begin the transition of our country from a republic to a socialist style government, but they certainly have come close to completing the transformation.