Obama Oversees The Most Rapid Increase Of Debt Under Any U.S. President

President Barack Obama has often noted that when he took office he inherited a huge national debt as a result of President George W. Bush’s two wars, his tax cuts and a prescription drug program that the country did not pay for, according to CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller.
Despite the President’s claims, Knoller writes, the most recent numbers from the U.S. Treasury show that the Obama Administration will surpass in just one term the spending of Bush’s two terms.
“The debt was $10.626 trillion on the day Mr. Obama took office. The latest calculation from Treasury shows the debt has now hit $14.639 trillion,” wrote Knoller in a recent CBS News Political Hotsheet report. “The national debt increased $4.9 trillion during the eight-year presidency of George W. Bush. The debt now is rising at a pace to surpass that amount during Mr. Obama’s four-year term.”
As the President and Congress continue with attempts to revive the suffocating economy with “super committees” and Federal Reserve money pumps, many believe that there is no end in sight to over-the-top government spending. The debt ceiling crises and subsequent credit downgrade over the past month prompted some to question the rhetorical caps on spending that do not actually stop Congress from spending money, according to a recent Fox News article.
“It is nothing but grandstanding for members of both parties to vote routinely for legislation that they know will create deficits and then profess shock and horror that the debt limit must be increased as a consequence,” Bruce Bartlett, an economic policy adviser to Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, recently wrote in response to Representative Jerrold Nadler’s (D-NY) proposal that the debt ceiling be done away with completely. Many Republicans agree with the idea that the ceiling is worthless if it does not serve the purpose of actually regulating spending, but have called for the definite need of a comprehensive plan if it were to be removed.
One thing remains constant in all media reports, the economy is not getting better any time soon. The “super committee” has been directed to make a plan for $1.2 trillion in debt reduction over the next 10 years, but many say the plan is too little too late in a time where nearly $5 trillion in debt can be incurred in a little more than two years.