Presidential Administrations and their percentage of the National Debt - Part II

The last time the National Debt went down was in 1960, the last year of the Eisenhower administration. My previous post yesterday on the matter was incorrect when I stated 1959. In 1960, the debt went down by $580,956,475.95. Since then, it has never gone down - only up. Part of the problem is the fact that the interest payments are off-ledger.

While it is conceivable to have a "budget surplus" like we did in the 1990s, this is negated from the mandatory interest payments that are not considered part of the budget. At the lowest rate of increase, 1999, the debt still went up $17,907,308,271.43. The next year, 2000 and President Clinton's last year in office, the debt rose by $133,285,202,313.20 - which was hardly leaving office under the economic conditions the American left claim.

How do the Presidential Administrations compare?

President George Washington through President Gerald Ford, Presidents 1-38, 1791-1976
Debt Increase: $707,142,528,417.78

President James Earl Carter, 39th President, 1977-1980
Debt Increase: $276,666,000,000.00

President Ronald Wilson Reagan, 40th President, 1981-1988
Debt Increase: $1,672,127,712,041.16

President George Herbert Walker Bush, 41st President, 1989-1992
Debt Increase: $1,462,282,943,480.50

President William Jefferson Blythe Clinton, 42nd Presidnet, 1993-2000
Debt Increase: $1,609,557,554,365.20

President George Walker Bush, 43rd President, 2001-2008
Debt Increase: $4,899,100,310,608.44

President Barack Hussein Obama, 44th President, 2009-present
Debt Increase: $3,031,935,408,476.43 (as of 10/28/2010 report on TreasuryDirect.gov)

The current size of the Debt, on Oct. 28, 2010 as we head into the mid-term elections is:
$13,658,812,457,389.51

The percentage of debt by Administration is as follows:
President George W. Bush (35.87%)
President Barack H. Obama (22.20%)
President Ronald W. Reagan (12.24%)
President William J.B. Clinton (11.78%)
President George H.W. Bush (10.71%)
Presidents Washington - Ford (5.18%)
President James E. Carter (2.02%)

 In 1835, the total debt was $33,733.05 and the debt was considered to be paid off, as the sum was inconsequential even for that time period. In 1836, it grew to $37,513.05 - only a $3,780.00 increase. That was before President Andrew Jackson issued his famous "Specie Circular" which mandated all payments to the Federal Land Office to be in gold and silver payments only, barred the highly speculative "greenbacks" as a form of payment.  This caused a panic. The debt grew by $299,444.78 in 1837 to $336,957.83. A year later, it grew by $2,971,169.24 to $3,308,127.07. It has never been at that level since.

In the modern era (Carter to present), Presidents Reagan and Clinton each served two terms and the National Debt increased by comparable amounts. In those 16 years of Reagan and Clinton, the increase totaled $3,281,685,266,406.36. In less than two years, the Obama increase is just $249,749,857,930.00 shy of that figure.

 President George W. Bush had an almost $5 trillion increase during his eight years, yet President Obama's increase is already 62% of the total of that amount in only 616 days. That's 2,306 fewer days than President George W. Bush.

At current spending levels, Obama's Debt will match George W. Bush's Debt in 51 more days - approximately Saturday December 18, 2010 (in 2255 fewer days). If the $4,991,064,525.20 daily average continues, the total increase in the 1457 days of the Obama administration will come to $7,271,981,013,216.40.

Presidential Administrations and their percentage of the National Debt - Part I

Last night I was asked by a nationally-syndicated radio talkshow host to calculate the percentage of the National Debt growth by each administration. Since the National Debt first crossed the $1 trillion mark under President Ronald Reagan, but the economy suffered greatly under his predecessor, President Jimmy Carter, I will be making those calculations later today from January 20, 1977 when Carter took office to the present, and post them when complete.

For the record, the National Debt, despite erroneous claims by Democrat activists, has not gone down since 1959 under President Dwight Eisenhower. Even at the height of the economic boom in the 1990s, the Debt still grew $17 Billion at it's slowest rate of growth. Under the Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, the debt grew. There was no single year since 1959 when the net size of the Debt actually went DOWN, though periods of governmental spending restraint coupled with a fast growing economy slowed the rate of growth.

I'll post those figures later today.