Michele Bachmann Blasts Obama for Spending & Debt ... Claims Bush Only Built Up $400 Billion In Debt

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) headlined an event on Friday for the North Dakota Republican Party, and lambasted President Obama for what she saw as his historically terrible handling of the nation's finances. The only problem, however, was that her pronouncements didn't bear much resemblance to reality.

Bachmann argued that "there is no moral equivalency" between the admitted over-spending of the Bush administration compared to the Obama presidency. "Because if you look at the debt level accumulated under George W. Bush, 400 some-odd billion dollars, President Obama in his first year in office accumulated $1.4 trillion, over four times more than that big spending George Bush -- and that was after 911 and the recessions and all that he had to deal with and the two wars. Over four times," said Bachmann.

"As a matter of fact, President Obama spent so much money that if you took all the debt that we accumulated from George Washington, every president up until Barack Obama, President Obama accumulated more debt in eight months than all previous presidents combined. Combined. That gives you context for the times we're living in."

Simply put, none of this is true or even bears much of a resemblance to the facts. When watching this speech, I knew it could not be true, so I checked with Concord Coalition policy director Joshua Gordon


http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/02/bachmann-blasts-taxes-spending-and-debt-under-obama---falsely-claims-bush-only-built-up-400-billion.php

they just need people to hear their crap and then spread it. Then it becomes a fact.

 
According to the Treasury's 'Debt to the Penny' webpage:

http://www.treasurydirect.gov/NP/BPDLogin?application=np


$400 billion or so vs $4,898 billion or so. That's actually pretty close for Michele Bachmann - only off by a factor of 12 or so.
 

from the link in the OP:

So what were the actual numbers? And did Obama really build up more debt than all previous presidents combined? "The debt numbers that we normally use are debt held by the public, so that doesn't count the Social Security trust fund," said Gordon. "So if you look at the end of the year, end of calendar year 2000, which is pretty close to the beginning of the Bush term, the debt held by the public was $3.4 trillion. And then by the end of the year 2008, the debt was $5.8 trillion. And then by the end of the year 2009, it was $7.5 trillion. Now that's calendar year 2009, so that pretty much encompasses the first year of the Obama administration."

So the levels of publicly-held debt increased by $2.4 trillion during the Bush years, six times as much as Bachmann alleged. During the Obama Administration, which has included a lot of spending on the stimulus, bailouts, and two foreign wars, and less revenue coming from a bad economy, the number has so far gone up by $1.7 trillion -- obviously less than all previous presidents combined.

By taking the "end of calendar year 2000, which is pretty close to the beginning of the Bush term," Bush receives the benefit of the holdover surplus from the Clinton administration. In this case, "pretty close" means "not really close at all." Remember, the 2001 budget was enacted during the previous year, which was actually Clinton's last year. A more accurate comparison of the Bush and Obama administrations would begin with budget year 2002, the first full budget under the stewardship of George W. Bush. Likewise, the 2009 budget, which includes an additional $1.7 trillion of debt is really the last budget year for the George W. Bush administration. The first budget year of the new Obama administration would be 2010.

Without even breaking a sweat.

She is representative of her party.

selective memory/amnesia

because Lord knows she couldn't make it to 5th.

are a segment of us prone to Bull Shit? Why do the Pub Base continue to suck for the Pubs and their Minions?

Its despicable ...that these Pub Peeps go out to scam their base as they do....dastardly dickheads stuck in their own anuses....They amaze the rest of us....

in farm subsidies her family has reportedly taken.

It just isn't in me.