Huckabee falsely claims national debt is “eight times” what it was under Bush

Written by Todd Gregory

Published

Mike Huckabee falsely claimed that under President Obama, the national debt is “eight times” what it was under President Bush. In fact, the total public federal debt on May 6 was 1.2 times larger than it was when Obama entered office.

Huckabee falsely asserts debt has increased “eight times” under Obama

Huckabee: "[A]n unbelievable debt -- eight times in President Obama's administration of what it was under George Bush." On the May 7 edition of Fox News' Your World with Neil Cavuto, Huckabee said:

People aren't into ideology right now. What they're into is the practical solution to real problems: overspending, overborrowing, and dealing with this train wreck that we see coming as a result of an unbelievable debt -- eight times in President Obama's administration of what it was under George Bush, when people were mad at Bush for running it up.

Federal statistics: Debt was $10.6 trillion under Bush, is now $12.9 trillion

Treasury website: Debt on January 20, 2009, was $10.6 trillion; debt is now $12.9 trillion. According to a search of the “Daily History of the Debt” application on TreasuryDirect.gov, the total outstanding public debt on January 20, 2009 -- the day Obama was inaugurated -- was $10,626,877,048,913.08. The total debt on May 6 was $12,932,913,325,200.66.

$12.9 trillion is 1.2 times larger than $10.6 trillion. If the total national debt had increased “eight times” under Obama, the current debt would be $84.8 trillion.