I’ve been hearing from several cable and Internet news sites that it’s high time for Obama to "own this economy."
Not so fast, folks.
For reasons of common sense, Barack Obama will not "own the economy" until Republicans have ensured the payback of their share of the national debt, incurred since George W. Bush took office in January 2001.
Let’s start with the debt at about $6 Trillion (give or take a few hundred billion) on the day George Bush was sworn in. When he left office, it was about $10 Trillion, a $4 Trillion increase. The Iraq War has cost us $750 Billion, and will end up at or above $1 Trillion. George Bush and his fellow Republicans own all of that! Afghanistan is another matter entirely.
Keeping a running tab here, Republican share of "debt ownership" therefore stands at $5 Trillion...for starters.
Of course there's more, including a poll!
But we must not overlook the cost of the pre-Obama, Republican-sponsored market crash, via housing derivatives trickery and market deregulation -- $2 Trillion, and growing. It could reach $36 Trillion under a worst-case scenario. To give the GOP a break, we won’t count the devaluation in our homes across the country due to the crash.
So, by my count, figuring from when Bill Clinton left office, the Republicans "own" $7 Trillion of our national debt. The current debt stands at about $13 Trillion. When that comes down to about $6 Trillion (in adjusted dollars), Barack Obama will own it, and everything beyond that, because that’s what he inherited from Bill Clinton.
But this isn’t so much about numbers as it is about the politics – the perception of who is responsible for the numbers. Senate and congressional Republicans, not to mention the Neo-Con media, would like to transfer to President Obama all of the debt ownership.
The only question is: Will we let them?