Obamanomics--Debt

Given that Barak Obama decried as "unpatriotic" the $4 trillion in debt accumulated by George W. Bush during the 8 years he was in office, it made sense that candidate Obama would pledged to cut the federal deficit in half before the end of his first term. (See HERE and HERE and HERE).

And, early in his first term, "President Barack Obama promised to get serious about reducing debt and deficits: 'We’ve got to spend some money now to pull us out of this recession. But as soon as we’re out of this recession, we’ve got to get serious about starting to live within our means, instead of leaving debt for our children and our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.'” (The White House, 2/12/09, as reported HERE)

The recession supposedly ended in 2009. (see HERE)

Later, during his second run for the presidency, Obama also said he wanted to balance the budget (see HERE and HERE).

His intents were admirable.

However, according to these figures, when Bush took office in 2001, the national debt was about $6 trillion, and when he left office, it was around $10.7 trillion, which means that over the 8 years he was in office, he amassed about $4.7 trillion in debt, and averaged about $587 billion in deficits each year. Whereas, from 2009 to 2013 (Obama's first term), the debt rose to about $16.4 trillion, meaning that in just 4 years Obama amassed $5.7 trillion in debt, and averaged about $1.4 trillion each year. In other words, Obama's deficits more than doubled those of Bush. Obama ran up a trillion dollars more in debt in 4 years than Bush ran up in 8 years.(see also HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE)  So, if Obama thought that raising the debt $4 trillion in 8 years was "unpatriotic," what do you suppose that means when he raised the debt over $5 trillion in four years?

Granted, some of the deficits accumulated during the Obama years are attributable to Bush policies and budgets (see HERE and HERE and HERE)  Yet, even after making the necessary adjustments, and using figures from the "White House's Office of Management and Budget...Bush ran up an average of $410 billion in deficit spending per year, while Obama has run up an average of $1.413 trillion in deficit spending per year — or $1.003 trillion a year more than Bush." (See HERE)

And, while federal budget deficits have started to shrink (see HERE and HERE), Maya MacGuineas claims "it is only temporary...The long-term situation, however, remains as dismal as it’s been.”(see HERE) According to CBS News, "The federal budget sent to Congress last month by Mr. Obama, projects the National Debt will continue to rise as far as the eye can see. The budget shows the Debt hitting $16.3 trillion in 2012, $17.5 trillion in 2013 and $25.9 trillion in 2022." (See HERE)  Obama's 2014 budget alone will add $5.2 trillion in deficits over the next 10 years. (see HERE)

Again, worse yet, Obama's green energy policies have squelched the opportunity for generating considerable revenue that could improve the economy and help offset some of the national debt. According to Dan Kish, Senior Vice President of the Institute for Energy Research, indicates: "In fact, annual revenue collections for sales and leases, royalties, and rentals on federal government lands are down over $12 billion per year since 2008. And that is just the direct revenue. It doesn’t include revenues from increased economic activity. If the government would just allow further exploration on federally-controlled lands and waters, that would add somewhere between $24 billion to $85 billion more per year. A recent Louisiana State University and Wharton study conducted for the Institute for Energy Research estimated that simply allowing access to these areas would create between 552 thousand and nearly two million additional jobs over the next 37 years. It would also generate an estimated $2.7 trillion in additional revenue over that same time period." (See HERE)

Again, the Leftist LUNC here is that instead of balancing the budget as promised, Obama has ballooned the national debt.

[Update 08/12/2015: Federal Taxes Set Record Through July--$17,955.00 Per Worker, Fed Still Run $465.5 Billion Deficit. The Debt is now above 19.6 Trillion (see HERE)]

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For an explanation as to why this Obamanomic Debt LUNC occurred, see: Gov: Wrong Tool for the Right Job -Strength in Numbers as well as The Politics of Compassion, Emotions, Ignorance, Denial, Blame-Shifting, The Politics of Spending--Intro, The Politics of Spending--Debt, The Politics of Spending--Public vs. Private, The Politics of Spending--Crony-ism, The Politics of Spending--Education, and The Politics of Taxing the Rich. [the unlinked topics will be posted later as they are completed]