[…before signing his health care entitlement…CAJ]
Ed Morrissey
HotAir.com
3/17/2010
The man at the top gets the blame for what ails the government, just as quarterbacks usually get the blame when offenses fail in the NFL. Neither case is particularly fair, but it serves nonetheless as a consistent marker for accountability. CBS’ Mark Knoller reports that Barack Obama has set a new record for adding to the national debt, smashing the old one set by George Bush:
The latest posting from the Treasury Department shows the National Debt has increased over $2 trillion since President Obama took office.
The debt now stands at $12.6 trillion. On the day Mr. Obama took office it was $10.6 trillion.
President George W. Bush still holds the record for the most debt run up on his watch: $4.9 trillion. But it took him over four years to rack up the first two trillion dollars in debt. It has taken Mr. Obama 421 days.
But the Obama Administration routinely blames the Bush Administration for inheriting a budget surplus and turning it into years of record-breaking deficits and debt — and then leaving it on the doorstep of the new president.
Unfortunately, both CBS and Obama get this one wrong. Deficits don’t come from Presidents. They come from Congress, which passes budgets and sets tax policy. While the White House proposes budgets, Congress actually debates, modifies, and then passes them, usually with some resistance from the President.
The article continues at HotAir.com
