"Reagan proved deficits don't matter," Vice President Cheney said in 2002 when pushing for a fresh round of tax cuts. With this attitude in hand, Bush passed on a budgetary nightmare to his successor. Bush came into office with an advantage few presidents have enjoyed -- a $230 billion surplus. But due to a $1.35 trillion tax cut in 2001, a $1.5 trillion tax cut in 2003, and a massive defense buildup through the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, Bush quickly blew through that surplus. The next president will "inherit a fiscal meltdown," Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-ND) warned in February 2008, as the Bush administration projected a budget deficit of $400 billion. After the financial crisis emerged last fall and the ensuing bailouts, Bush's budget deficit ballooned to over $1 trillion.
Tripled. (3)
There was a surplus when Bill Clinton left office, but a deficit when Bush left office.
George W. Bush
massive defense spending by Ronald Reagan a series of laws reducing the amount of taxes
George W. Bush ...................he took office with a federal surplus of $127 billion, left by Pres. Bill Clinton..........
President Bush will hold the office until President-elect Obama is sworn in on January 20, 2009.
Tripled. (3)
President Bush wanted to keep the social sequester safe from loosing the money that was to be paid out to the citizens when they come of age. So to keep the debt down is what they want to do.
George W. Bush, the 43rd president of the United States, was in office for 8 years from 2001 to 2009. His father George H.W. Bush was in office from 1989 to 1993.
US budget deficit for 2008 $400 billion. Budget for $2009 $999.95 Billion. 2010 is expected to be $1.43 Trillion. --------- The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office projected the 2009 deficit as $1.2 trillion on January 7, 2009. This was the last estimate they did while Bush was president. These estimates depend on many variables of course, so they are really rough estimates, but clearly the current year deficit was running somewhere above $1trillion when Obama took office.
George W. Bush was the first president to take office in the New Millenium
george W. Bush was the President on that day.