Posted by Matt Hawes on 12/16/08 09:20 AM Last updated 12/16/08 09:19 AM   [Newer: Ron Paul Huffington Post Interview] [Older: "Economic Freedom or Socialist Intervention?"]

The Washington Times reports on the economic legacy of the Bush administration.

President Bush has nearly doubled the national debt during his eight years in the White House. As he prepares to return to Texas next month, Mr. Bush is on track to add $5 trillion to the $5.73 trillion national debt he inherited when he took office. According to Treasury Department data, the number was $10.66 trillion at the end of November, and it has been rising at an astronomical rate.

Read the rest here, and thanks to Bentley for the heads-up.

Posted 12/16/08 09:47 AM Andrew Sica Woodbury, CT

8 years of hell over... And the prospect that the next 8 could be just as bad, even worse... Although, as hard as Obama will try, it will be difficult to top the damage Bush and the neocons did at every level of the government. I pulled some St. Louis Fed Bank charts from Mises.org and posted them in my blog here: http://www.campaignforliberty.com/blog.php?view=6176

Posted 12/16/08 09:56 AM Felegund Jonesville, KY

This economic crisis in tow, I wager that Obama trumps bush with ease. Of course, his deficit will be all about helping people, so it will be forgiven. The socialists are far easier for most to forgive than the neocons.

Posted 12/16/08 10:12 AM Andrew Sica Woodbury, CT

As Christoper Manion said in his blog today at LRC: "As president, Obama, while inheriting all the unconstitutional power that Bush foolishly accrued to the office, will be able to say, "Hey, don't blame me! Bush did this to you!""

Posted 12/16/08 10:13 AM Haystacks Calhoun NEW YORK, NY

Am I crazy or is it that people who don't hold gold just have an incentive to be debtors during this period, and to withhold any value-producing activity until later on, meaning they should just sit around and eat cake they bought with their credit card?

Posted 12/16/08 10:21 AM gabricker Helena, MT

I've been wondering the same thing Haystacks.

Posted 12/16/08 10:22 AM Andrew Sica Woodbury, CT

I don't know Haystacks.... I do know people (NOT friends or family - I wouldn't associate with these folks) personally who have decided it is now "ok" to stop paying their mortgage and college loans. They believe that the government will make everything ok and their credit rating will not take a hit. I don't quite know how anyone could even sleep at night behaving like that.

Posted 12/16/08 10:27 AM Andrew Sica Woodbury, CT

Note that the person I am referring to in particular has not lost their job or anything like that (i.e. no financial hardships)

Posted 12/16/08 10:28 AM Bentley Colorado Springs, CO

Thanks for the mention and here is the link to my blog and remarks on the story http://conservativeforchange.blogspot.com/2008/12/national-debt-doubles -under-bush.html

Posted 12/16/08 10:30 AM Bentley Colorado Springs, CO

Use this link instead http://conservativeforchange.blogspot.com/

Posted 12/16/08 10:32 AM Mark Thomas Willis, VA

Yep, Haystacks, I fell for the skewed incentives. I have been running several micro-businesses--computer consultancy, farming, renovating a retail building. My debts aren't huge (about 18 months earnings), but most of my earnings go immediately back into company expenses. It's a (completely legitimate) tax strategy to not be liable for income tax, while building up several flexible income streams. We have a few months' worth of savings in the form of food, fuel, and animal feed--namely the consumption and factors of production we know we'll need. I have a good line of credit, and could run up my debt buying gold on the expectation that the dollar will inflate. But I know my own businesses much better than I know the gold market, so I am concentrating on trying to make sure I can adjust them to different doomsday scenarios. Hope it works!

Posted 12/16/08 10:43 AM Mark Thomas Willis, VA

By the way, Haystacks, there's a good podcast I listened to this week that talks about how the current economy encourages risk taking: http://feeds.mises.org/~r/MisesMedia/~3/481017188/05_Fed1992_Garrison.mp3. It might not be new information for you, but Garrison connects the dots very clearly how the Fed has tried to remove risk from business, and as a result encourages banks in trouble to bet big against the inflation they expect is right around the corner--he calls it "gambling for resurrection".

Posted 12/16/08 10:44 AM sweetliberty San Rafael, CA

Andrewsi, what's his incentive for paying his mortgage/college loan? The government has removed any. What's his punishment for shirking his responsibility? The government has removed any. That old adage, "What you subsidize, you get more of" is going to apply a thousand fold to bad debt. There's no reason (except one's own conscience and a sense of self-respect) to put forth the effort to uphold your end of an agreement anymore.

Posted 12/16/08 10:47 AM BruceKoerber Cedar Rapids, IA

Looking at the change in the level of debt is like looking at the mangled front tire in a devastating head-on collision where lives have been destroyed. Just like the damaged wheel and the tire, the overwhelming debt is, indeed, out of place and consequential. But what about all the other conditions and circumstances and the lives affected? The debt was used for something! It financed war. It financed the expansion of the power to control greedily sought by the unConstitutional coup. For example, the debt helped to finacne the loss of the free press. Does that show up in the 'data' of the empiricists? These same empiricists who use erroneous data to spur on the ego-driven interventionists are the ones grudgingly reporting the debt (as a point of data). The debt 'figure' is an understatement of the magnitude of the problem. Go back to the head-on collision and tell me, by comparison, how important is the condition of the wheel and tire? Now look at the debt 'figure' and realize all the hidden devastation that the empiricists are concealing in their 'data.'

Posted 12/16/08 11:04 AM Andrew Sica Woodbury, CT

I here ya sweetliberty, and agree - the government is going to put it on all our backs anyway... I guess these people that derive their sense of what is right and wrong from what the government tells them are going to have a field day!

Posted 12/16/08 12:33 PM Haystacks Calhoun NEW YORK, NY

Thanks, Mark Thomas. I will check it out.

Posted 12/16/08 12:57 PM smashysmashy dover, NH

I agree that the govt is tempting us with this temporary crutch, but even the most uninformed sheep still know that this money is coming from our tax dollars. Yes I have an incompetent govt making terrible decisions, they are definitely enabling me to make a bad decision, but I will still not steal from my fellow taxpayers regardless of how awful govt is. One side of me doesn't want to blame the citizens when the real blame should be on our elected officials.. but then the other side realizes that it is most likely these type of citizens who vote for these awful politicians. I am taking out more college loans than i normally would have in anticipation that the value of the dollar is going to collapse. However, I am going to pay back my loans in full even if the dollar magically remains 'stable.'