When President Obama was inaugurated in January, the debt was $6.3 trillion.
Source: "The Man Who Sells America’s I.O.U.’s " By ROBERT PEAR - NY Times - August 23, 2009
[S]tate spending during the six years of Mr. Bush's term [as Governor of Texas - 1994-2000] grew by 37 percent, or 12.5 percent per two-year budget.
Source: "Perry stands by criticism of Bush" By CHRISTY HOPPE - Dallas Morning News 12/14/07
LBJ was derided as a big-spending liberal, but he was tight-fisted compared to Bush. While George is now trying to pretend that he’s a small-government fiscal conservative, federal spending in his administration has grown by 5.3 percent a year, nearly a full point higher than the rate of increase in the Johnson years, and more than double the annual spending growth under Democrats Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton.
Of course, the Bush White House takes no responsibility for anything negative, so it’s now trying to blame the billions of dollars that it's dumping into his “war on terrorism” for distorting Bush’s spending numbers (maybe the Bushites don't remember that LBJ had a war to finance, too, since so few of them actually served in it). But Bush spending is not just about his mismanaged wars. He has also hiked budgets in most agencies, with a disproportionate share of the increases going to privatization of government, corporate welfare, and right-wing ideological boondoggles.
So, now that we hear free-spending George W suddenly posing as Mr. Frugal and demanding that Congress hold the line on spending, remember that no president has spent more of your tax dollars and gotten so little for it as he has.
Source: "Big Spending George" by Jim Hightower - 12/5/07
After seven record-breaking years in a row, the number and cost of so-called pork barrel projects is way down, thanks to voter outrage and a one-year moratorium imposed by Democrats after taking over Congress.
That's good news, according to Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group that has railed against congressional ''earmarks'' for years.
''There are no indoor rain forests, National Peanut Festivals, mariachi music grants, or teapot museums to be found,'' according to the group's annual ''Pig Book.''
[Passing a spending bill] fell to Democrats to finish the job last month, and the chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations committees declared a one-year ban on most back-home projects until reforms could be put in place.
[T]he number and cost of projects is way down from a record of $29 billion set in 2006. Democrats promise a big reduction in the number of earmarks.
Earmarks had blossomed under GOP control of Congress. Former Republican leaders Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and Tom DeLay, R-Texas, advocated the practice to help cement GOP majorities.
Source: "Watchdog Cheers at Decline in 'Pork' " - By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS - March 7, 2007
Note the only period during which the debt actually decreases - 1992-2000 - when a Democrat was in the White House
Source: NY Times - 08/24/09