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LeadershipDonald Trump

Here’s How Much Barack Obama Added to the National Debt

Lucinda Shen
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Lucinda Shen
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Lucinda Shen
By
Lucinda Shen
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January 20, 2017, 1:21 PM ET

President Barack Obama left office after adding $9.3 trillion to the national debt pile for the current U.S. Commander-in-Chief, Donald Trump.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury Bureau of the Fiscal Service reported Thursday that national debt had grown to $19.9 trillion, up 87% since Obama stepped into office in 2009.

Under President George W. Bush, the debt rose 86.3% to $10.63 billion in the course of 8 years.

Granted, the debt figures don’t account for the U.S.’s growing population or inflation. The figures also don’t say much about the U.S.’s ability to pay back its bills.

At any rate, credit ratings agency Moody’s told CNBC earlier this month that the U.S. is still in relatively good shape to pay back its debts. The firm’s Chief Sovereign Ratings officer, Moritz Kraemer, said that the country was stable, and unlikely to lose its AA rating a at least a while.

Though he also noted that the U.S. wasn’t likely to travel back to the good old days, when the country last had its coveted AAA credit rating.

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Lucinda Shen
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