Former President Barack Obama has left office having added $9.3 trillion to the national debt, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
When Obama took office on Jan. 20, 2009, the outstanding public debt totaled $10.626 trillion. When Obama left office Friday, outstanding public debt totaled $19.944 trillion, an increase of roughly $9.318 trillion, according to numbers from the Treasury Department at USDebtClock.Org, which tracks how much the US debt grows in real time.
The increased debt incurred under Obama equals approximately $75,129 for every person in the United States who had a full-time job in December, CNS News reported.
"The Obama administration put out 3,069 regulations, adding nearly $900 billion in costs to the economy. Obama’s main focuses were fighting global warming and immigration. Obama’s rules added nearly 572,000 pages to the Federal Register, including a whopping 97,110 pages in 2016 alone — an all-time record," the Daily Caller explained.
The largest budget item is Medicare/Medicaid which has seen over $1.1 trillion added to U.S. debt. Social Security accounted for $900 billion, while $585 billion was spent on defense and war, RT.com reported.
"Former President George W. Bush contributed far less to the debt. When Bush took office in January 2001, the debt was roughly $5.7 trillion. That figure had swollen to $10.6 trillion by the time he left office, an increase of about $4.9 trillion," the Beacon reported.
“Absent policy changes, the federal government’s fiscal path is unsustainable and that the debt-to-GDP ratio would surpass its historical high of 106 percent within 15 to 25 years,” the Government Accountability Office has warned, the Beacon reported.
And American voters are looking to Donald Trump to get such "unsustainable" spending and disorganization with public finances quickly under control.
To be sure, Trump will be a demanding leader who applies the best of his negotiating skills to push for U.S. growth, bestselling author David Horowitz told TheStreet.com.
Trump won’t be an ideological purist like Republicans who support free trade but don't fight for fair trade, Horowitz said. “If you just say, ‘well we're for free trade and we're not going to look at the deals that we make’ -- that's not a good idea,” he said. “We've had an anti-business president now for eight years who doesn't take a hard-nosed attitude towards these deals. Trump is going to get better deals for us, which is still free trade.”
Horowitz's new book "The Big Agenda: President Trump's Plan to Save America," released just this week, reveals Trump's "first 100 days strategy" to roll back Obama's legislative and executive record.
Trump will also lead the way in making infrastructure spending to boost the U.S. economy, Horowitz said.“If the economy grows as it will under Trump, there's going to be a lot more money to spend,” he said.
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And to accomplish his agenda, Trump would be wise to appoint a supporting cast of free-market conservatives to his administration, Forbes Media CEO Steve Forbes tells Newsmax TV.
"They've got to get some of these people in because the president can do so much but you got to have a supporting cast or at least some players in there who can push this agenda," Forbes told "Newsmax Prime" host J.D. Hayworth.
Among his picks, Forbes touted Newsmax Finance Insiders Larry Kudlow and Stephen Moore for possible positions in Trump's administration.
"I hope Larry Kudlow gets in perhaps as the head of the Council of Economic Advisers. Perfect post for him," said Forbes, author of "Reviving America." "Stephen Moore, whether it's in the White House or with Vice President-elect Pence. Very critical to have his voice in there," said Forbes. "Others like David Malpass who understands the Fed better than anyone else. Get him in there. He was a supporter of Trump," Forbes said.
(Newsmax wire services contributed to this report).
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