Obama pledged to cut the debt in half by the end of his first term. how'd that work out?
Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid
He pledged to cut the deficit in half. Slight difference than cutting the debt. Well not slight but I'm trying to be nice. Below are Obama's deficits by year.
He failed in that promise in his first term but did achieve it in his 2nd term
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President George W. Bush's last budget—for Fiscal Year (FY) 2009—created a deficit of $1.4 trillion.2 That fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2008, and continued until Sept. 30, 2009. Although most of that deficit occurred after Obama took office, it was a result of Bush's budget. Similarly, the first deficit that occurred after President Donald Trump took office was due to Obama's last budget.
Here are Obama’s deficits by year. They total $6.807 trillion.
FY 2009: Congress added $253.1 billion from Obama's Economic Stimulus Act to Bush’s last budget after Obama took office. This emergency funding was to stop the Great Recession. That $253 billion accrues to Obama, not Bush.3 Once the $253 billion is subtracted from the FY 2009 deficit, it means Bush’s true budget deficit was $1.16 trillion.
FY 2010: Obama's first budget created a deficit of just under $1.3 trillion.4
FY 2011: This budget deficit was $1.3 trillion.5
FY 2012: The deficit was $1.1 trillion.6
FY 2013: This was the first Obama budget where the deficit, $680 billion, was less than $1 trillion.7
FY 2014: The deficit was $483 billion.8 Tax revenue rose to $3.02 trillion.9
FY 2015: The deficit fell further to $439 billion.10
FY 2016: The deficit rose to $587 billion.11
FY 2017: The deficit was $665 billion.12 It was $162 billion more than the $503 billion deficit estimated in Obama's budget request.13