Russell Leiman: Bush increased debt too

Regarding the Nov. 30 letter “Out-of-control spending”: The writer claimed that the share of the national debt “I now owe due to Obama” is “in excess of $100,000.” He needed to check both his facts and his arithmetic.

First, the national debt during the George W. Bush presidency rose from $5.8 to $10.6 trillion, an increase of 82.75 percent. The debt now stands at $19.4 trillion, an increase during the Obama presidency to date of 83 percent. Moreover, 35 percent of that increase occurred in the first two years of the his presidency, 2009-10, in large part attributable to dealing with the worst recession since the Great Depression inherited from the Bush presidency.

Second, according to the U.S. Census the total population is currently 325 million. That would make the writer’s share of the entire national debt less than $60,000, and of the increase under Obama less than half of that.

This story was originally published December 14, 2016 at 8:11 PM with the headline "Russell Leiman: Bush increased debt too."