Bush's last debt numbers thru September of 2009

[kentuck]

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/2009/opds092009.pdf

Obama's last debt number thru March 2011:
http://www.treasurydirect.gov/govt/reports/pd/mspd/2011/opds032011.pdf

Proof that Obama has not tripled the debt or the deficit in two years.

[bluestate10]

1. And Obama does not hide the cost of two wars like Bush did. nt

[Igel]

2. 9/09 is 8 months of spending.

Which included half of TARP and the stimulus, plus a $400 billion budget bill signed by Obama. It pays to recollect how the TARP was structured. 1/2 was approved for disbursement after the inauguration only upon a personal request by Obama. It's money that didn't have to be spent and was later largely reimbursed--having the effect of either reducing the deficit retroactively or artificially reducing the debt in later years. So you have to be careful about how you account for the TARP reimbursements, if only so there are two people on earth that are.

It's also worth noting that the stimulus bill from 2/09 increased the debt ceiling by more than the outstanding amount in the 9/09 figures you refer to.

There's this squirrelly method of reckoning how debt's to be allocated. Many assume that the entirety of a budget is the responsibility of the president when the fiscal year began. Some use inauguration dates as a hard and fast rule. Others are squishier and sort of use a touch-and-feel way of allocating debts. (I've even seen cases where a partisan will use the inauguration date when it minimizes the debt incurred by his/her guy but the fiscal year ending when it maximizes the debt incurred by the other camp's guy.)

Using f/y 2009 as all * is a problem because there wasn't a budget passed under *. Congress approved continuing resolutions. In some cases a quid pro quo was arranged to get a chunk of the budget passed; these usually involved most of the spending that both sides wanted. Using the inauguration date inappropriately puts some of the budget mess in Obama's lap when it belongs in *'s, but also misplaces part and puts it in *'s lap when it's strictly Obama's.

Nobody who says that Obama tripled the public debt in 2 years need be taken seriously. But the deficit was trending down until late 2008, and maxed out at about $500 billion under *. $1.6 trillion is triple the deficit. He's coming very close to, in 2 1/2 years, increasing the debt by as much as * increased it in 8 years.