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Comment by albinofrenchy | Hacker News Reader

> why did they allow the president to run up more national debt than all presidents prior...combined

This isn't true even on the face of it; it went up from ~10 trillion to ~18 trillion. And aside from that; the national debt exploded due to the economic collapse that happened months before Obama was sworn in. The accusation is wrong on the facts and disingenuous.

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Yeah, I agree but unfortunately anyone who says that usually isn't going to be swayed in the face of objective fact. People act like the 2008 crash just happened spontaneously because Obama was elected, ignoring the shit show of the prior decade.

Yes the prior decade, starting in 1998 when Bill Clinton signed legislation that opened the financial doors which allowed the housing crisis to start. Bush didn't close that door and so it built momentum but it would not have been possible if Bill had not signed that legislation in the first place.

And the debt was increased by actions like bailing out the auto industry, saving 800,000 jobs. All those workers then voted for Trump.

That costed less than $10 billion in the end... you have several additional trillions to account for.

That actually didn't increase the debt. Most of those loans were repaid.

The money to the banks, I'm not so sure.

Don't forget Obama was handed two active wars that he had to fund. They were spending billions per day on military operations. He wound them down as fast as he could but it still took years.

It's closer to ~20 trillion now, right?

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