BushToll

Documenting the Bush Legacy of Failure

Bush Left Obama a $1.2 Trillion Deficit

Posted on | April 4, 2010 | No Comments

DeficitsWhen we hear the partisan whining and complaining that President Obama has exploded the Federal budget deficit, it’s important to understand the budget train wreck he inherited from the previous administration.

At the beginning of Jan. 2009, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released its report The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2009 to 2019. In it, the CBO projected that the deficit for fiscal 2009 would total $1.2 trillion, or 8.3 percent of GDP. Note that Federal fiscal year 2009 was Oct. 1, 2008 to Sept. 30, 2009.

The CBO also cautioned that its projection did not include the effects of future legislation such as the stimulus package. In fact, the CBO was prescient as the actual 2009 deficit turned out to be $1.4 trillion.

In brief, the projected deficit for 2009 was $1.2 trillion before Barack Obama set foot in office, and he in turn contributed an additional 14 percent ($200 billion) attributed by the CBO to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, i.e., the stimulus program.

Sources

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2009 to 2019

The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2010 to 2020

Table of Revenues, Outlays, Deficits, Surpluses, and Debt Held by the Public, 1970 to 2009 (PDF)

h/t to Factcheck.org, “A Texas-Size Whopper”

Related

Bush Grew Gross Federal Debt by 85.5 Percent

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