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Rep. Leonard Lance recently criticized the Washington establishment for spending the nation into a fiscal crisis. In a July 17 column, Lance (R-7th Dist.) blamed both sides of the political aisle for driving up government debt , but also singled out President Barack Obama. Recently we have seen our government debt grow by $3.4 trillion during the first 29 months of the Obama administration -- the equivalent of about $4 billion per day, Lance wrote in the column published on CourierPostOnline.com. PolitiFact New Jersey checked whether government debt has increased that much since Obama took office -- and whether the president is responsible. We found Lance’s statistics are correct, but Obama’s role in debt growth is more difficult to pin down. There are two types of government debt: one includes debt held by the public and the other includes debt held directly by the government, such as in trust funds for Social Security and Medicare. Collectively, those two types of debt make up gross national debt. Lance’s spokeswoman, Angie Lundberg, said the congressman was referring to debt held by the public. Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009. From then until July 15 -- the most recent data available at the time Lance made his statement -- publicly held debt increased more than $3.4 trillion, from more than $6.3 trillion to more than $9.75 trillion, according to U.S. Treasury Department data. That’s a $3.75 billion increase per day. Round up and it’s the equivalent of about $4 billion per day. So, Lance had his numbers right. But is Obama responsible for that increase? Lundberg said Lance didn’t lay blame on how we acquired that debt, just stated the fact. But Lance highlighted the debt growth during Obama’s tenure, so we’ll look at how much the president is at fault. Let’s note that when Obama took office he inherited all the debt accumulated by his predecessor, President George W. Bush. An April report by the nonpartisan Pew Fiscal Analysis Initiative analyzed the difference in the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office’s projections of publicly held debt and the actual debt from 2001 to 2011. The report found that about two-thirds of debt growth -- expressed as a percentage of the gross domestic product -- during that time resulted from new legislation, some of which was enacted under Bush. The report said the Bush tax cuts, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the 2009 stimulus are three of the five most significant legislative drivers of the debt, but also notes that no single policy or piece of legislation, however, is overwhelmingly responsible for the increase. We also spoke with five experts from different Washington, D.C.-think tanks. The general consensus was that while Obama can’t be saddled with all of the growth in debt since taking office, he is responsible for some of the increase. Michael Linden, director for tax and budget policy at the liberal Center for American Progress, argued that the debt attributable to Obama would be the amount accrued from legislation Obama signed, including: the stimulus package, extension of the Bush tax cuts -- though he notes that was a bipartisan deal -- and his budgets. It’s difficult to tease out exactly how much that’d account for, Linden said, but it’s definitely not the whole $3.4 trillion. Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Obama’s policies are to blame for most of the change in spending that contributed to debt growth, but not most of the change in revenues. Assigning blame for either entirely to the president would be wrong, he said. Isabel Sawhill, a budget expert with the centrist-to-liberal Brookings Institution said Obama and factors outside his control are to blame for rising debt. Obama’s actions to fight the financial crisis and the recession did add to the deficits and debt but are not the major culprits, she said in an email, citing a persistent gap between spending and revenues, largely because of the aging population and the growing cost of health care. Marc Goldwein, policy director of the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, highlighted some legislation Obama signed that added to the debt, but said the economy is a factor. Let’s review. Lance correctly stated that government debt held by the public grew by $3.4 trillion during Obama’s tenure. But experts said that while Obama can be blamed for some of that increase, he isn’t responsible for it all. We rate Lance’s statement Half True. To comment on this ruling, go to NJ.com .
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