President Barack Obama
President Obama has the largest deficits. By the end of his last budget (FY 2017), the total deficits will be $6.695 trillion for his eight years in office. Obama started off launching the $787 billion
economic stimulus package that cut taxes, extended
unemployment benefits, and funded job-creating public works projects. The
Obama tax cuts added $858 billion to the debt in its first two years. Most important was increased
defense spending, which added as much as $800 billion a year.
Federal income decreased due to lower tax receipts from the
2008 financial crisis.
Both Presidents Bush and Obama had to contend
with higher mandatory spending for
Social Security and Medicare than their predecessors did. That's because health care costs were rising, and the American population was aging. In 2010, Obama launched the
Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act to reduce the debt by $143 billion by 2020. For more, see
National Debt Under Obama.
President George W. Bush
President Bush is next, racking up $3.293 trillion over two terms. He responded to the attacks on 9/11 with the
War on Terror, driving total military spending to at least $600 billion a year. The
Bush tax cuts, also known as
EGTRRA and
JGTRRA, cut taxes to address the 2001 recession. Unfortunately, the cuts did not sunset when the recession was over, adding to the housing boom and depleting revenues during the 2008 recession. He attacked the
2008 financial crisis with the
$700 billion bailout. Congress added it to the mandatory budget, where it became the Troubled Asset Relief Program (
TARP).
