Where Debt Is Due

[Geee]

American Thinker:

From Glenn Beck to Walter Russell Mead to President Obama, and at all points in between, the darnedest people agree that President Bush increased the national debt. But is this true? Does it even make sense?

The Democratic narrative is that Bush increased the national debt, and that was bad. Of course, Obama increased the national debt much more than Bush did, with additional increases stretching off indefinitely into the future, but this is somehow justified by Bush's supposed (relatively small) increases. Not only that, but Obama insists that he inherited the housing crash from Bush.

Chronologically, yes, it is true -- from January 20, 2001 to January 20, 2009, the national debt increased, and during that time, Bush was president. But laws, policies, and budgets are passed by Congress and signed by the president. As long as a law is in effect, the costs of that law or policy continue to accumulate, regardless of who becomes president in the meantime.

Historically, the United States has sat atop the economic world since at least as early as WWI. Then WWII temporarily left us with a high debt level but a very strong economy, and we were able to quickly expand the economy and pay off the debt. Now the "Comeback America Initiative" lists the United States as 28th among 34 developed countries in a "country's fiscal responsibility and sustainability" -- one place below Italy and one above Hungary, and well below China (5), Chile (7), Brazil (10), and India (12). So whence cometh this troublesome debt that grew from $1 trillion in 1965 at the start of the War on Poverty to over $14 trillion today?