Official portrait of President-elect Barack Obama on Jan. 13, 2009.
(Photo by Pete Souza)
By Dave Boyer
The Washington Times – Sunday, November 1, 2015
When President Obama signs into law the new two-year budget deal Monday, his action will bring into sharper focus a part of his legacy that he doesn’t like to talk about: He is the $20 trillion man.
Mr. Obama’s spending agreement with Congress will suspend the nation’s debt limit and allow the Treasury to borrow another $1.5 trillion or so by the end of his presidency on January 20, 2017. Added to the current total national debt of more than $18.15 trillion, the red ink will likely be crowding the $20 trillion mark right around the time Mr. Obama leaves the White House.
When Mr. Obama took over in January 2009, the total national debt stood at $10.6 trillion. That means the debt will have very nearly doubled during his eight years in office, and there is much more debt ahead with the abandonment of “sequestration” spending caps enacted in 2011.
“Congress and the president have just agreed to undo one of the only successful fiscal restraint mechanisms in a generation,” said Pete Sepp, president of the National Taxpayers Union. “The progress on reducing spending and the deficit has just become much more problematic.”
Some budget analysts scoff at the claim made by the administration and by House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, that the budget agreement’s $112 billion in spending increases is fully funded by cuts elsewhere. Mr. Boehner left Congress last week.
Reprinted with permission of The Washington Times
Editor’s Note: U.S. Treasury shows national debt on July 20, 2016 at $19.402 trillion, an increase of $8.776 trillion over $10.626 trillion debt on January 20, 2009, Obama’s first day in office. Click here: http://treasurydirect.gov/NP/debt/search?startMonth=01&startDay=20&startYear=2009&endMonth=07&endDay=20&endYear=2016
