For decades, Congress has customarily raised the nation’s statutory debt limit to accommodate federal spending by permitting additional borrowing. Republicans did so numerous times for the nation’s biggest contemporary presidential spenders, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Now they should feel obligated to raise the debt ceiling for the president who’s been forced to clean up the vast wreckage of his predecessor.
When Bush II took office, the national debt – reduced by the Clinton-era surpluses – stood at $5.727 trillion. Under the burden of Bush’s profligate credit card spending – for two wars, huge tax cuts and the Medicare prescription benefit – federal debt soared. An obliging Congress, under Republican control for most of George Bush’s tenure, meekly signed off on seven increases in the federal debt in his eight years in office.
7 increases for Bush II
The 7th increase under Bush II, in October 2008, pushed the debt ceiling to $11.315 trillion, doubling what it was when he took office. It was necessary to accommodate Bush’s banking bailout bill – the Housing and Economic Recovery Act – when the Great Recession that occurred on his lax regulatory watch crashed down on Wall Street and threatened to implode global financial markets.
The debt spending that Bush II left in the pipeline for President Obama for his wars, tax cuts and bailout spending, moreover, will have added at least $2 trillion more to his total when the wars are wound down and the military’s rebuilding and veterans’ health care cost are tallied.