Politics >> Obama, You Did Not Inherit a Trillion-dollar Deficit

02/24/09 11:48:29 pm, by Tony Quain

, 390 words
Categories: Economic Issues

In his address to Congress tonight, President Obama repeated his false claim that his administration has inherited a $1 trillion deficit:

My budget does not attempt to solve every problem or address every issue. It reflects the stark reality of what we’ve inherited - a trillion dollar deficit, a financial crisis, and a costly recession.

Also, see this video clip.
He then goes on to claim that he will cut the deficit by the time he leaves office:

Yesterday, I held a fiscal summit where I pledged to cut the deficit in half by the end of my first term in office.

Really? Here are the deficits of the Bush years (from CBO):

Year	Revenues	Outlays	Deficit
2001	1,991.4	1,863.2	128.2
2002	1,853.4	2,011.2	-157.8
2003	1,782.5	2,160.1	-377.6
2004	1,880.3	2,293.0	-412.7
2005	2,153.9	2,472.2	-318.3
2006	2,407.3	2,655.4	-248.2
2007	2,568.2	2,728.9	-160.7
2008	2,523.6	2,978.5	-454.8
AVG			-250.2

I don’t see any trillion dollar deficits here. Ah, but wait. What about the current fiscal year, 2009, which ends September 30? Some are speculating that the deficit this year could be as large as $1 trillion. Why? Because much of the $700 billion bank bailout (which he voted for) will be spent this year and a portion of Obama’s just passed stimulus package will also be spent this year.

So Obama is using this year as the starting point, claiming it is the deficit he “inherited". And while part of it belongs to the Democratic Congress of last year and President Bush, much of this deficit is his doing. The only deficit that he truly inherited was the $455 billion deficit from last year. While I do not think it is fair to say that he is wholly responsible for this year’s deficit, he thinks it completely fair to make it bigger and then claim that he inherited it. The nerve.

And so when he says he’s going to cut the deficit in half in four years, is he talking about getting it down to half of $455 billion, a level which Bush himself bested just one year before, in 2007? No, he means he’s going to cut it to half of the current fiscal year deficit, the one which is still yet to finish. His target: $530 billion. So he intends to have a deficit in every year of his administration that is more than twice as large as the average deficit under President Bush. But because it is half as large as the first year of his own, he gets to say he is cutting the deficit in half. This is bullshit.

7 comments »

7 comments

Comment from: BRIAN SCHWARTZ [Visitor]

Interesting Post, I asked myself the same question when
our wonderful new Commander and Chief made mention
of the 1 trillion dollar inheritance. So essentially he wants to
spend 4 years getting us back to today. What the hell, Makes sense to me.

02/25/09 @ 08:08

Comment from: Jordyn [Visitor]

Great post! I did not believe that he had inherited this deficit like he claimed. This is just another tactic he is using to try to take the focus off of himself. As long as there are Democrats who are still stuck in the past, he will continue to blame Bush for his own mistakes. This man is shameless and obviously weak. A real leader would stand up and take responsibility for this situation whether he had created it himself or not. No wonder many countries are laughing at us behind our backs.

03/26/09 @ 21:17

Comment from: John [Visitor]

Um...No because Bush did not include the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan which would put that number into the trillions...take a look and see for yourself. How about all of the care for Vets in the future which also was not included. How many of you even bothered to complain whenthis was all occuring the last 8 years? Though so.

07/10/09 @ 16:19

Comment from: nick [Visitor]

How wonderful! Obama has the nerve to say at
his pressconference that he inherited $1.2 trillion
and nobody questions him!?
People,wake up! Open your eyes and ears!

07/22/09 @ 22:32

Comment from: Mo [Visitor]

Actually, YOU need to wake up. This country inherited an economic crisis, with major industries on the verge of collapse,
a war in a country that should never have been started, a
housing crisis, that if the Bush administration would have
had THEIR eyes open, would never have ended up as bad as it
is now. Why cant you people see that SOMETHING needs to
be done NOW, and it is going to take drastic measures to
get us back on track. Why dont you spend your time helping
the US get back on track rather than bitching about it and
spreading false rumors! You people will be the reasons why,
among other issues, specifically health care - WILL be the death of the US.

08/19/09 @ 17:43

Comment from: Brian Peterson [Visitor]

The trillion dollar deficit that was inherited?
The defcit for George W Bush's last fiscal year was 1.8 trillion dollars according to the increase of the National Debt (An accumulation of all annual deficits) according the http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/NPGateway
At this site one can select the day/month/year to see growing deficits. George W Bush's last fiscal budget year started on October 1, 2008 and ended on september 30, 2009.
Check it out.

12/01/09 @ 00:25

Comment from: Loralyn Conover [Visitor]

O.K. Bush did not include the cost of the war in his deficit. Wars cost ALOT of money which is NOTHING compared to the cost of lives. While President Bush did start with a small deficit, $128.2 he did almost quadruple it by the time he left office $454.8 Now, do you all not remember when John McCain had to postpone his campaign because Pres. Bush had to call an emergency finance meeting to address the horrible financial crises that was taking place in the country WHILE BUSH WAS STILL OUR CURRENT PRESIDENT! Every man has his own opinions on past or current situations, however, there is only ONE TRUTH!

01/17/10 @ 12:28

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