http://www.crfb.org/blogs/has-president-obama-doubled-national-debt

Excerpt...It's complicated:

It's Unfair to Attribute Debt Increase Entirely to Obama

While by many measures debt has doubled under Obama’s presidency, it is hard to argue this is entirely of Obama’s doing.

First of all, much of the debt increase was the result of laws and economic conditions in place before Obama took office rather than laws that passed under his presidency. The Congressional Budget Office’s first current law projections of the Obama presidency already projected debt held by the public would rise from $5.8 trillion to $9.1 trillion when Obama left office – and these projections didn’t incorporate the entire depth of the Great Recession, which reduced revenue and therefore further increased debt.

Importantly, though, President Obama did sign many laws worsening this debt situation. Among the most significant are the 2009 stimulus, extending the 2001/2003 tax cuts temporarily in 2010 and making most of them permanent in 2012, the 2015 permanent "doc fix," and the tax extenders/omnibus bill at the end of 2015. President Obama also signed several pieces of legislation to reduce projected debt, most significantly the Budget Control Act. But importantly, these laws were written not by the president but by Congress.

It is Congress that passes tax and spending legislation. There is little the president can do to impact the debt, positively or negatively, without a bill passed by Congress. Conversly there is little Congress can do without the president's signature or a veto-proof supermajority. Further, during most of Obama's term to date, control of Congress was split between a Democratic Senate and a Republican House. Both branches share blame, both for legislation that increased the debt and for failing to enact legislation that would curb the debt growth that was already projected to occur from the growth of entitlement programs and insufficient revenues.

By a few metrics, debt has doubled during the Obama presidency. The blame though is not only on him because some of the debt increase over the past eight years was already expected to occur, and Congress had to approve bills that increased the debt. Interestingly, debt held by the public would double again by 2024 under Trump's proposed plans – so while he is right about what's happened under President Obama's watch, his plan will make the problem worse.

Slatten, I never did attribute the debt increase to Obama alone and it is good that you recognize the culpability of both the House and for that matter the Senate too in foisting this burden on us. That's the difference between people like you and me and people like Kevyn, PeterS, moldyoldy, Wood Guru, etc. Anything that goes wrong they will blame on Trump or the Republicans and only Trump & the Republicans.
They will not shoulder any blame themselves.

You can not conduct a debate with people who cite rumor, hearsay, innuendo, half-t***hs, distortions, misrepresentations and outright lies as facts. They regard their conclusions as the end of the debate.

http://www.crfb.org/blogs/has-president-obama-doubled-national-debt

Excerpt...It's complicated:

It's Unfair to Attribute Debt Increase Entirely to Obama

While by many measures debt has doubled under Obama’s presidency, it is hard to argue this is entirely of Obama’s doing.

First of all, much of the debt increase was the result of laws and economic conditions in place before Obama took office rather than laws that passed under his presidency. The Congressional Budget Office’s first current law projections of the Obama presidency already projected debt held by the public would rise from $5.8 trillion to $9.1 trillion when Obama left office – and these projections didn’t incorporate the entire depth of the Great Recession, which reduced revenue and therefore further increased debt.

Importantly, though, President Obama did sign many laws worsening this debt situation. Among the most significant are the 2009 stimulus, extending the 2001/2003 tax cuts temporarily in 2010 and making most of them permanent in 2012, the 2015 permanent "doc fix," and the tax extenders/omnibus bill at the end of 2015. President Obama also signed several pieces of legislation to reduce projected debt, most significantly the Budget Control Act. But importantly, these laws were written not by the president but by Congress.

It is Congress that passes tax and spending legislation. There is little the president can do to impact the debt, positively or negatively, without a bill passed by Congress. Conversly there is little Congress can do without the president's signature or a veto-proof supermajority. Further, during most of Obama's term to date, control of Congress was split between a Democratic Senate and a Republican House. Both branches share blame, both for legislation that increased the debt and for failing to enact legislation that would curb the debt growth that was already projected to occur from the growth of entitlement programs and insufficient revenues.

By a few metrics, debt has doubled during the Obama presidency. The blame though is not only on him because some of the debt increase over the past eight years was already expected to occur, and Congress had to approve bills that increased the debt. Interestingly, debt held by the public would double again by 2024 under Trump's proposed plans – so while he is right about what's happened under President Obama's watch, his plan will make the problem worse.

Slatten, I never did attribute the debt increase to Obama alone and it is good that you recognize the culpability of both the House and for that matter the Senate too in foisting this burden on us. That's the difference between people like you and me and people like Kevyn, PeterS, moldyoldy, Wood Guru, etc. Anything that goes wrong they will blame on Trump or the Republicans and only Trump & the Republicans.
They will not shoulder any blame themselves.

You can not conduct a debate with people who cite rumor, hearsay, innuendo, half-t***hs, distortions, misrepresentations and outright lies as facts. They regard their conclusions as the end of the debate.