Whether the rumors of Timothy Geithner’s resignation are true or not, I wouldn’t blame him for abandoning his post. After all, he has witnessed – and contributed to - a larger increase in national debt than any other Treasury Secretary in U.S. history.
The national debt increased $3.7 trillion from Jan. 26, 2009 to June 30, 2011, according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of the Public Debt. This has happened all on Geithner and the Obama administration’s watch.
In fact, the debt accrued under Geithner is greater than all federal debt accrued in the first 204 years of the nation’s history. The national debt did not reach $3.7 trillion until October 1991, according to historical Treasury data that reaches back to 1791.
Geithner, who reportedly may step down from his position soon, has overseen the accrual of more federal debt (in only 2.5 years) than every Treasury secretary combined from Alexander Hamilton to Nicholas Brady, who was Treasury secretary in October 1991 when the national debt reached $3.7 trillion.
Since then, the federal debt has increased by historically large amounts under each Treasury secretary since Brady but not to the level it is today under Geithner.
The sad part is Obama continues to advocate more spending and Geithner continues to advocate increasing the debt ceiling, a measure that has become all but pointless. That’s right, a “ceiling” that is raised every year can hardly be considered a ceiling. And Congress wonders why its approval ratings are so dismal.
If you’re curious, debt increases under previous Treasury secretaries are presented below:
Nicholas Brady (9/15/88-1/17/93): $1,564,862,000,000.00
Lloyd Bentsen (1/20/93-12/22/94): $559,880,257,144.59
Robert Rubin (1/11/95-7/2/99): $815,560,432,731.13
Lawrence Summers (7/2/99-1/20/01): $109,651,004,604.88
Paul O’Neill (1/20/01-12/31/02): $677,930,718,549.89
John Snow (2/3/03-6/30/06): $2,040,609,369,491.81
Henry Paulson (7/10/06-1/20/09): $2,218,644,118,047.16
The technical fact that the debt has increased 3.7 trillion under Obama and Tim Geithner is misleading by when one fails to mention that over 90% of that increase is due to a more honest and accurate accounting of the historic and continuing cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the cost of the Bush tax cuts. The article goes with the fictional narrative that the US is cannot afford have government safety nets and social programs that the rest of the industrialized world enjoys. The immediate problem of our national debt arose from unfair tax policy compounded by extreme spending on wars and many years of legislation favorable to the worlds largest corporations and unfavorable to middle class Americans. The Obama administration inherited an economic catastrophe brought on by failures to regulate out of control markets. It’s actions actually added less than 700 billion to the national debt over the time period referenced. In spite of neo-conservative revisionist history about FDR and the great depression, government spending is one of the only tools available to help with main street economic problems. The national debt as a percentage of GDP remains well below the national debt coming out of WWII. The solution to the debt is stimulate our economy by returning to the policies that gave a GI bill for education and legislation to restore fair trade policies that protect our markets and restore the engine of wealth that is manufacturing more things here. The tempered melding of the capitalistic engine with carefully chosen socialistic concepts gave rise to the post WWII greatness of our nation. As we have turned more to the notion that what is good for capital interests is good for everyone we have watched our greatness diminish. Wake up and throw out politicians who are wholly in the pocket of a relative handful of the wealthiest. Reward politicians who (at least occasionally) act in the interest of the majority of people. Give up the mean spirited philosophy of “greed is good” coupled with the authoritarian desire to give all power to the perceived kings among us. Almost none of us will rise to a position where this philosophy benefits us and if the majority of us hold this philosophy we are doomed as a nation to fall to third world status.