Based on available data, here are the approximate amounts added to the U.S. national debt by the last six presidents:
George H.W. Bush (1989-1993): The national debt increased by about $1.5 trillion during his single term.
Bill Clinton (1993-2001): The debt increased by a smaller amount, around $1.4 trillion, during his two terms.
George W. Bush (2001-2009): The national debt increased by approximately $4 trillion during his two terms.
Barack Obama (2009-2017): The national debt grew by roughly $9 trillion.
Donald Trump (2017-2021): The national debt increased by about $7.8 trillion during his first term. Starting in 2025 the CBO estimates the OBBB will add trillions more to debt over the next decade.
Joe Biden (2021-2025): The national debt grew by an estimated $8.4 trillion during his term.
The national debt has been growing at a rate of approximately $1 trillion every five months, a pace that is more than double the average of the last 25 years.
According to estimates by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, Cumulative 10-year deficit (2025–2035): Estimated to total $22 trillion
Sometimes emergencies dictate the need for deficits, but adding to debt through tax cuts and other unfunded spending is just irresponsible, increases interest costs and leaves less room to deal with real emergency spending.
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As bad as George W. Bush was, in fact he only added $4.9 Trillion over eight years – or an average of about $600,000 a year – from $5,728,195,796,181.57 to $10,628,881,485,510.23 – with lots of spending in his last year as we entered the Great Recession. His bigger failure was in adding more than ten trillion of unfunded liability via Medicare Part D – something where the Democrats would have spent even more had they been in charge.
For comparison, President Obama added: $9.3 Trillion, or about $1.2 Trillion a year – from $10,628,881,485,510.23 to $19,944,429,217,106.77. HIS bigger failure was adding an unknown amount of trillions to the national debt by expanding Medicaid and initiating taxpayer subsidized exchange coverage which has been the primary driver of our ever increasing national debt over the past fifteen years
President Trump l has two different rates of deficit spending: Until COVID, March 2020, Trump failed to get health reform reversed, or even get a budget passed, so, his spend was mostly a continuation of President Obama – adding $3.6 trillion in the first three plus years – about $1.2 Trillion a year – from $19,944,429,217,106.77 to $23,517,855,054,159.01. Then, over the next ten months, due to COVID, he allowed Congress to blow out spending which increased the debt to $27,752,835,868,445.35 by the time he left office.
President Biden also has two different rates of deficit spending. Continuation at a slightly higher rate of COVID spending for the first six months or so through July 202l, adding $670, 000 of spend in less than six months for a spending rate of about $1.4 Trillion from $27,752,835,868,445.35 to $28,427,721,872,418.70. COVID was all but over once the vast majority of Americans received the vaccine. Then, over the next three and a half years, he increased the deficit spending to an average of nearly $2 Trillion a year, increasing to $36,206,593,315,575.15 through the end of his term – January 19, 2025.
Sorry, there is NO comparison of Bush ll with the Democrats who followed, nor with Trump l.
President Trump ll has at least started to roll back the financial abuses that led to the dramatic expansion of our annual deficits and national debt due to Health Reform and the subsequent vote buying by President Biden when he expanded access and the subsidies provided for taxpayer-subsidized health coverage.
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You miss the #1 point. Budgets are approved by Congress. So, what we have is a Congress interested in buying votes – with a few exceptions.
The first exception was George W. Bush, who gave us an additional $10+ Trillion in unfunded liability by signing into law the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 (Medicare Part D) without any new funding source to get his ass reelected in 2004. The second is President Obama who gave us an additional $1 – $2 Trillion a year in annual deficits for as far as the eye can see or the CBO cares to predict, through the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010 (Health Reform/Obamacare). Again, he promised it would not add a thin dime to the deficit, but, because there was no specific tax earmarked, wasn’t at all hard for Congress to ignore the deficits.
Yes, we have added $26+ Trillion in new debt since Health Reform took effect!!!!!!!!
Then, Trump, Biden and Trump again have found it too hard to stop the $1.5 – $2 Trillion a year additions to deficits – so, they meekly work around the edges of the budgets via continuing resolutions. Trump tried to stop the spend with his stupid attempt to repeal and replace Health Reform – in which a Republican dominated Congress decided they preferred reelection and told him no.
Go back to 2001, 25 years ago, and we were raising ~$2 Trillion and spending ~$2 Trillion. Since then, revenues have increased to over $5 Trillion, but, spending has increased to $7 Trillion. First Bush II addded Part D, then Congress/Obama added Health Reform, then Congress/Trump added “one time” crap due to COVID, but then, President Biden and now President Trump II continue the excessive spending.
We do not have a revenue issue, we do not have a tax issue, we do not have a tax fairness issue, we have a SPENDING issue!!!!!
But, the group that deserves most of the blame are the liars in Congress who use all this crap to buy votes – again with the exception of Medicare Part D and Health Reform.
Good example, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan into law three months after vaccines hit the market. Spending $1.9 trillion with no revenue source. $85+ Billion of that money bailed out multiemployer pension plans (union plans) where union leadership and management all but fraudulently colluded to underfund those plans in order to trigger a taxpayer bailout by people who themselves do not have a pension plan. To give you an idea how crappy this was, it was President Carter who recognized that these pension plans were in trouble when he signed into law the Multiemployer Pension Plan Amendments Act of 1980 into law – 45 years ago! Worse, they spent $85 Billion on the bailout but DID NOT FIX CHRONIC, INTENTIONAL, UNDERFUNDING. Forty years from now, unless something changes, we’ll see another taxpayer bailout – where Congress uses this option to buy votes.
So, go ahead and blame Bush II and Obama and Biden – the idiot ass Trump didn’t have a Congress willing to scale back Health Reform or other spending. Sure the idiot ass Trump could have vetoed those CR’s, but, … little chance of reducing spending (just like little chance of reducing higher prices) once inflation kicked in due to the Biden Administrations profligate post-COVID spending on the Rescue Act.
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They all think money grows on trees!!
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