That's what GOP House leader Boehner is claiming. It's a lie.
In January 2001, before the Bush tax cuts were enacted, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected annual budget surpluses of approximately $800 billion between 2009 and 2012. The CBO now projects a $1.2 trillion annual deficit for those years and has also stated that the Bush tax cuts contributed to the budget deficit.And here's a little more:
CBPP: “The Tax Cuts Enacted Under President George W. Bush, The Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, And the Economic Downturn Together Explain Virtually the Entire Deficit Over the Next Ten Years.” The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities recently found that, “the tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the economic downturn together explain virtually the entire deficit over the next ten years (see Figure 1). The deficit for fiscal 2009 was $1.4 trillion and, at an estimated 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), was the largest deficit relative to the size of the economy since the end of World War II. Under current policies, deficits will likely exceed $1 trillion in 2010 and 2011 and remain near that figure thereafter. The events and policies that have pushed deficits to astronomical levels in the near term, however, were largely outside the new Administration’s control. If not for the tax cuts enacted during the Presidency of George W. Bush that Congress did not pay for, the cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that began during that period, and the effects of the worst economic slump since the Great Depression (including the cost of steps necessary to combat it), we would not be facing these huge deficits in the near term.” [Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, 12/16/09]
Doug Holtz-Eakin: Give Obama Administration A Pass For Current Deficits, They Would Have Occurred Under McCain Anyway. The top economic adviser to John McCain's presidential campaign acknowledged on Monday that the U.S. would be running a historic deficits this year even if the Republican had won the White House. In an interview on MSNBC, Douglas Holtz-Eakin argued that “you simply have to give the [Obama Administration, by and large, a pass. It did inherit a very weak economy, it inherited programs that were intended to compensate for that, they're very expensive.” The former CBO Director Holtz-Eakin further acknowledged that under McCain's stewardship “we would probably still have a record deficit.” [Huffington Post, 2/1/10; MSNBC Daily Rundown, 2/1/10]
Right-Wing CATO Institute: "Don't Blame Obama For Bush's 2009 Deficit." CATO Institute: "Some critics are lambasting President Obama for record deficits. This is not a productive line of attack, largely because it puts the focus on the wrong variable...In addition to being theoretically misguided, critics sometimes blame Obama for things that are not his fault. Listening to a talk radio program yesterday, the host asserted that Obama tripled the budget deficit in his first year. This assertion is understandable, since the deficit jumped from about $450 billion in 2008 to $1.4 trillion in 2009. As this chart illustrates, with the Bush years in green, it appears as if Obama’s policies have led to an explosion of debt. But there is one rather important detail that makes a big difference. The chart is based on the assumption that the current administration should be blamed for the 2009 fiscal year. While this makes sense to a casual observer, it is largely untrue. The 2009 fiscal year began October 1, 2008, nearly four months before Obama took office. The budget for the entire fiscal year was largely set in place while Bush was in the White House. So is we update the chart to show the Bush fiscal years in green, we can see that Obama is partly right in claiming that he inherited a mess." [CATO Institute blog post, 11/19/09]
New York Times' David Leonhardt: Only 10% Of The Deficit Comes From Obama's Economic And Domestic Policy While Bush's Agenda Accounts For 53% Of The Deficit. David Leonhardt: "President Obama’s agenda, ambitious as it may be, is responsible for only a sliver of the deficits, despite what many of his Republican critics are saying. ... The New York Times analyzed Congressional Budget Office reports going back almost a decade, with the aim of understanding how the federal government came to be far deeper in debt than it has been since the years just after World War II. This debt will constrain the country’s choices for years and could end up doing serious economic damage if foreign lenders become unwilling to finance it. ... The story of today’s deficits starts in January 2001, as President Bill Clinton was leaving office. The Congressional Budget Office estimated then that the government would run an average annual surplus of more than $800 billion a year from 2009 to 2012. Today, the government is expected to run a $1.2 trillion annual deficit in those years. You can think of that roughly $2 trillion swing as coming from four broad categories: the business cycle, President George W. Bush's policies, policies from the Bush years that are scheduled to expire but that Mr. Obama has chosen to extend, and new policies proposed by Mr. Obama. The first category — the business cycle — accounts for 37 percent of the $2 trillion swing. It’s a reflection of the fact that both the 2001 recession and the current one reduced tax revenue, required more spending on safety-net programs and changed economists’ assumptions about how much in taxes the government would collect in future years. About 33 percent of the swing stems from new legislation signed by Mr. Bush. That legislation, like his tax cuts and the Medicare prescription drug benefit, not only continue to cost the government but have also increased interest payments on the national debt. Mr. Obama’s main contribution to the deficit is his extension of several Bush policies, like the Iraq war and tax cuts for households making less than $250,000. Such policies — together with the Wall Street bailout, which was signed by Mr. Bush and supported by Mr. Obama — account for 20 percent of the swing. About 7 percent comes from the stimulus bill that Mr. Obama signed in February. And only 3 percent comes from Mr. Obama’s agenda on health care, education, energy and other areas." [David Leonhardt, New York Times, 6/10/09]
USA Today: National Debt “Almost Doubled” Under President Bush. “At a minimum, the GOP cries of fiscal irresponsibility would have more credibility if this weren't largely the same crowd that almost doubled the national debt during the Bush administration. And too many Republicans regard tax cuts as having magical powers that somehow don't increase the deficit.” [USA Today, Editorial, 2/12/09]
President Bush Added $5 Trillion To The National Debt. According to the Treasury Department, total public debt outstanding was $5.7 trillion when President Bush took office, and it was $10.7 trillion when Mr. Bush left office. Prior to the height of the financial crisis, since which time the government has assumed much greater obligations and liabilities, the public debt was still at $9.6 trillion. [U.S Department of Treasury, Bureau of Public Debt, Public Debt 2001-2008; Politifact.com, St. Petersburg Times, “Truth-O-Meter,” 1/18/09]
Republican-Controlled Budgets Under President Bush Added $2.8 Trillion To The National Debt. From January 2001 through October 2006 the total public debt outstanding grew from $5.66 trillion to $8.58 trillion. [U.S Department of Treasury, Bureau of Public Debt, Growth of National Debt 2001 - 2007]
