Obama killed Osama, and the economy too. -- Swallow all liquids in your mouth before reading any further. Updated numbers for the national debt are just out: It's now $14,639,000,000,000. When Barack Obama took the oath of office twice on Jan. 20, 2009, CBS' amazing number cruncher Mark Knoller reports, the national debt was $10,626,000,000,000. That means the debt that our federal government owes a whole lot of somebodies including China has increased $4,247,000,000,000 in just 945 days. That's the fastest increase under any president ever. Remember the day the Democrat promised to close the embarrassing Guantanamo Bay Detention Facility within one year? That day the national debt increased $4,247,000,000. And each day since that the facility hasn't been closed. Same for the day in 2009 when Obama flew all the way out to Denver to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill that was going to hold national unemployment beneath 8% instead of the 9.1% we got today anyway? Another $4,247,000,000 that day. And every day since, even Obama golfing and vacation days. Same sum for the day Obama flew Air Force One nearly four hours roundtrip to Columbus, Ohio for a 10-minute speech about how well the stimulus was working in the politically crucial Buckeye state. Ohio's unemployment rate just jumped to 9% from 8.8% anyway. Or last week's three-day Midwestern tour in the president's new $1.1 million Death Star bus? National debt went up $16,988,000,000 while he rode around speaking and buying ice cream cones. Numbers with that many digits are hard to grasp, even for a Harvard head. So, let's put it another way: One billion seconds ago Bill Clinton was nearing the end of his two terms and George W. Bush's baseball collection was still on the shelves in the Austin governor's office. The nation's debt increased $4.9 trillion under President Bush too, btw. But it took him 2,648 days to do it. Obama will surpass that sum during this term. Now, how to portray a trillion, or 1,000 billions. One trillion seconds ago much of North America was still covered by ice sheets hundreds of feet thick. And the land was dotted by only a few dozen Starbuck's. Obama is saying yes, we can get control of the national debt. But ominously every time he says that he adds that trillions of dollars in infrastructure repairs are badly needed across the country. And with interest rates so low, according to the thinking on Obama's planet, now is an excellent time to borrow even more money. So, it looks like not too long before Americans learn what comes after 1,000 trillions. It's quadrillion. But for Bernanke's sake, please don't tell anyone in Washington. Spoiler
At this time in both Bush and Obama's presidencies... Bush 180 days of vacation Obama 61 days of vacation
to be fair, Bush had a lot less on his plate, just September 11 & the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq...those went swimmingly!
While American debt is a problem, and it is beginning to weigh down on growth, it is nowhere near the issue most portray it to be. America is borrowing at historically low rates, and will continue to do so for quite some time. While debt above 90% of GDP levels will incrementally slash growth, so will arbitrary budget cuts. Short-term austerity has failed so many times, it is amazing to consider that it is still an option. Look at 1937, the Asian Financial Crisis, England nowadays. It's funny because short-term austerity comes from the same root cause of the debt problem in the first place---namely the unhealthy desire to satisfy the impulses of a mass of people who can't quite grasp basic economic concepts. You give them pensions when everybody is content, when everyone is panicking, you slash education impulsively to pacify them. A balanced budget is no silver bullet. Ireland was a fiscal conservative's wet dream of balanced budgets, but its' cowboy free-market banking sector broke the country within a year or two. What's the point of running a balanced budget if in doing so, you are still cultivating dangers such as "too-big-to-fail" banks that will send your economy crashing down in one or two years? The debt needs to be managed. But alarm-ism triggered at trying to get action NOW---food aid cut, education budgets cut, balanced budget amendment etc. when the country faces a much more fundamental problem of lagging growth is foolhardy at best. A slow, rational, long-term culling of the debt, with all options (including tax increases) on the table, is the best strategy. America is not close to Euro-bankruptcy, and will not be for quite some while. Once economic growth is reactivated, a lot of those scary-looking numbers will be alright. Slow cuts in the military, a tweak here and there in social programs along the way---America can afford to be level-headed about her debt, and she should be.
Hey!!!! I agree! Thanks, President Obama! It could have been worse! Wow, Basso finally coming around?
Could we pull out of Iraq and Afghanistan anytime soon please? Maybe use that money to patch up social programs at home? How is the democrat/liberal voting block not pissed about this? I don't fault Obama for this entirely but I do fault him for continuing many of the same terrible policies that he was elected to go change.
Blaming a guy who has no legislative power makes a ton of sense! Besides, huge deficits and increasing debt haven't just been phenomena of the Clinton, Bush, Obama era. The truth is Congress has been doing this for more than 100 years.
Blaming Obama for the economy/budget crisis is like accusing the paramedic of murder for showing up to the crime scene.
So it's not that you think Obama had a role in hurting the economy, it's that you think we called a person in who is not equipped to deal with the situation that he arrived to find. Got it.
I like the part were they say that uneployment "jumped" .2 percent..... But I somehow think if it went down .2 percent it wouldn't be a big deal....
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I'm no Obama supporter and while Obama can't completely shed the blame completely since he has been in office almost 4 years but a lot of the current debt crisis was/is out of his control. Anyways this blame game back and forth is pretty stupid... Bush did this . Bush did that.. It's all Bush's fault.. vs Obama is evil.. Obama is a communist. Obama is bankrupting the nation. Blah blah blah.. it's pretty tiring and old isnt it? Sadly most of the nation just seem to be blinded by any of the issues and just love to paint the other side as evil and blame them for everything that goes wrong. I was once in that camp. I got caught up with all the partisan political crap. Do you really think someone from the other party really wants to destroy the US? Clearly we have a huge debt problem. I personally cant do anything about it. I'm just going to go on with my happy life working and supporting my family. I just hope our so called elected leaders can do their job and fix this mess.
I get it. You think Obama would have been perfect for a sick economy but was useless for the economy he inherited, not having the knowledge or the training to appropriately deal with it.
The past 30 years of excessive deregulation and revenue cuts combined with recent out of control war spending isn't exactly something I can blame Obama for. Nor can I expect him to undo all of that in less than 1 whole term. Unfortunately, thanks to Congress, it looks like he may not get it done in 2 whole terms either.
