Bush and Congress left FY2009 (except DoD & DHS) under CR until after the election. Obama signed the FY2009 spending bills in March 2009. The Obama Administration and Dems in Congress had complete control until after the mid-terms, they've neglected to do anything about the fundamental problems in the budget.
This falls squarely on Obama, if he was serious about what's best for the country and not being an idealogue, he had the bully-pulpit, could've driven true "change" in DC, and gone down as one of the greatest POTUS. Instead he chose to govern from the far left and that hasn't worked out so well.
I'm not a Clinton fan, but the guy was a master politican and knew there were times to track to the center for the good of the country (or his party's re-election chances, either way it worked out).
Here's some details from WaPo:
Is Obama responsible for a $5 trillion increase in the debt? - The Washington Post
Key takeaways from the link and a sublink:
- “While it’s true that revenue has decreased by a small amount, spending has soared — and it’s the role of a president to set a budget that ensures that spending stays in line with available revenue,” Fehrnstrom said. “
President Obama has both increased non-defense discretionary spending and failed to propose any serious reforms to entitlement spending.” He noted that non-defense discretionary spending — annually appropriated by Congress — has increased significantly under Obama.
- The nation has a revenue problem
and a spending problem — or else there would not be a deficit.
Just a couple other quick hits:
Why did Obama ignore his own Debt Commission?
WARREN BUFFETT: “Well it – you go back to what, you know, Kemp-Roth and all that that too that they were working on that. I think what happened with Simpson-Bowles was an absolute tragedy. I mean here are two extremely high-grade people. They have somewhat different ideas about government but they’re smart. They’re decent. They’ve got good senses of humor, too. They’re good at working with people.
They work like a devil for ten months or something like that. They compromise. They bring in people as far apart as Durbin and Coburn to get them to sign on and then they’re totally ignored. I think that’s a travesty.” (CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” 11/12/11)
Thoughts from Mark Warner:
Senator Mark Warner talks debt reduction and Rep. Ryan plan – CNN Press Room - CNN.com Blogs