7/31/2019 Are You Better Off Than You Were Four Years Ago

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Are you better off than you were four years ago?

May be?Click here. As a country, we are better

off by at least $3.5 trillion.Why? See graph.Image Credit: Chris Kleponis; Paul J. Richards/Getty Images

Time t is in days, with day 1 being Jan 20, 2001, when President George W Bush

took the oath of office. Debt D is in trillions of dollars. The quarterly debt data

were obtained from the website of the Bureau of Public Debt. Blue diamonds are

for the Bush second term (starting 9/28/2007). The red squares are for the Obama

presidency, through August 30, 2012. Towards the end of the Bush term, the debtwas increasing at a high rate 0.00656 trillion per day, or $6560 million per day.

The debt growth rate has slowed down since then. The blue dots are the projections

based on the final year of the Bush presidency. Click here for more details.

Compiled by Dr. V. Laxmanan, Sep 3, 2012. Email:vlaxmanan@hotmail.com

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0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000U

S

NationalDebt,D[$,

trillions]

Time t in da s since Geor e Bush Presidenc

D = 0.00656 t 8.344Between 6/30/08 and 12/31/08

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loBe0WXtts8http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loBe0WXtts8http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/are-you-better-off-than-your-were-four-years-ago/http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/are-you-better-off-than-your-were-four-years-ago/http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/are-you-better-off-than-your-were-four-years-ago/http://www.scribd.com/doc/104803209/The-Rate-of-Growth-of-the-National-Debt-The-Obama-versus-the-Bush-yearshttp://www.scribd.com/doc/104803209/The-Rate-of-Growth-of-the-National-Debt-The-Obama-versus-the-Bush-yearsmailto:vlaxmanan@hotmail.commailto:vlaxmanan@hotmail.commailto:vlaxmanan@hotmail.commailto:vlaxmanan@hotmail.comhttp://www.scribd.com/doc/104803209/The-Rate-of-Growth-of-the-National-Debt-The-Obama-versus-the-Bush-yearshttp://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/09/are-you-better-off-than-your-were-four-years-ago/http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loBe0WXtts8

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Are you better off than you were four years ago? asked then candidate Ronald

Reagan in his closing remarks during the final Presidential debate of 1980.

This is a question that is being asked again in 2012 and even Democrats are having

trouble answering this question.It appears that the country may be better off by at least $3.5 trillion, if we consider

the slowing down of the debt growth rate since President Obama came to office.

Is this a favorable sign?

Is this good enough?

Let the people answer on Election Day.

Let the long term unemployed answer on Election Day, November 6, 2012.

Click here for a slide show on Presidential Fun facts.

Note: The raw data used to prepare the graph on page 1 is compiled in Table 1.

Towards the end of the Bush presidency, the rate of the growth of the debtaccelerated significantly, see companion article (click here). The debt increased by

the amount D = ($10.699$9.492) = $1.207 trillion between June 30, 2008 and

Dec 31, 2008. The days elapsed, t = 184. Hence, the equation of the straight line

joining these two points is D = 0.00656 t8.344. The slope h = D/t = 1.207/184

= $0.00656 trillion per day. The blue dots, where D = $16 trillion and $20 trillion

are extrapolations. If the debt has continued to increase at the same rate, on August

30, 2012 (time t = 4241), the debt would have increased to $19.48 trillion. Instead,

we just crossed the $16 trillion mark, because of the slowing down of the rate ofdebt increasea savings of nearly $3.5 trillion!

http://photos.msn.com/slideshow/photo/presidential-fun-facts-and-trivia/23z7tg0ehttp://photos.msn.com/slideshow/photo/presidential-fun-facts-and-trivia/23z7tg0e

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Table 1: US National Debt (Jan 20, 2001-Aug 30, 2012)

Date Days betweendates

Time tDays in Office

Debt, D$, trillions

(Bush)

Debt, D$, trillions

(Obama)1/19/2001 0 0 5.7283/30/2001 70 70 5.7746/29/2001 91 161 5.7279/28/2001 91 252 5.807

12/31/2001 94 346 5.9433/29/2002 88 434 6.0066/28/2002 91 525 6.1269/30/2002 94 619 6.228

12/31/2002 92 711 6.406

3/31/2003 90 801 6.4616/30/2003 91 892 6.6709/30/2003 92 984 6.783

12/31/2003 92 1076 6.9983/31/2004 91 1167 7.1316/30/2004 91 1258 7.2749/30/2004 92 1350 7.379

12/31/2004 92 1442 7.5963/31/2005 90 1532 7.777

6/30/2005 91 1623 7.8369/30/2005 92 1715 7.93312/31/2005 92 1807 8.170

3/31/2006 90 1897 8.3716/30/2006 91 1988 8.4209/29/2006 91 2079 8.507

12/29/2006 91 2170 8.6803/30/2007 91 2261 8.8506/29/2007 91 2352 8.8689/28/2007 91 2443 9.008

12/31/2007 94 2537 9.2293/31/2008 91 2628 9.4386/30/2008 91 2719 9.4929/30/2008 92 2811 10.025

12/31/2008 92 2903 10.6991/20/2009 20 2923 10.627

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Table 1: US National Debt (Jan 20, 2009-Aug 30, 2012)

Date Days betweendates

Time tDays elapsed

(Since Bush)

Debt, D$, trillions

(Bush)

Debt, D$, trillions

(Obama)1/20/2009 20 2923 10.627 10.633/31/2009 70 2993 11.136/30/2009 91 3084 11.559/30/2009 92 3176 11.91

12/31/2009 92 3268 12.313/31/2010 90 3358 12.766/30/2010 91 3449 13.209/30/2010 92 3541 13.56

12/31/2010 92 3633 14.03

3/31/2011 90 3723 14.276/30/2011 91 3814 14.349/30/2011 92 3906 14.79

12/31/2011 92 3998 15.223/31/2012 91 4089 15.586/29/2012 90 4179 15.868/30/2012 62 4241 15.99