I read a lot about how Obama is "spending us into oblivion" and "creating debts that we can never repay," so I decided to look objectively at Obama's initiatives and Bush's initiatives with respect to our deficits.
Obama has had two major spending initiatives: the Stimulus Bill and the Health Care bill. He also has to tackle the wars (winding down one and accelerating the other) because one cannot simply teleport 200,000 men and women out of a war zone.
Bush had three major initiatives: The Prescription Drug Bill, his Tax Cuts, and the Wars.
Starting with Obama's initiatives, the Stimulus Bill "cost" $863 Billion".
I place the word "cost" in quotations because the Stimulus Bill consisted of two parts: Spending ($550 Billion) and Tax Cuts ($288 Billion), which means that there was both money going out of the Treasury and money prevented from coming in, both of which make our deficits worse.
The Health Care Bill cost $940 Billion.
So, all together, the Obama initiatives (setting aside the residuals of War) equal: $1.413 Trillion in payments out of the Treasury and $288 Billion in reductions in revenues. That brings the total "cost" of Obama's initiatives to: $1.701 Trillion.
Turning to Bush's initiatives, the Prescription Drug Bill cost $1.2 Trillion.
The Bush tax cuts cost $2.485 Trillion, including $344 Billion in interest paid to holders of our debt, including China.
Again, setting aside the cost of war and supporting our veterans into the future (estimated at $3 Trillion, the total cost of Bush's initiatives was: $1.544 Trillion in payments out and $2.485 Trillion in reductions in revenue. That brings the total "cost" of Bush's initiatives to: $4.029 Trillion.
To recap, that gives us:
Obama:
Payments Out: $1.413 Trillion
Revenue Cuts: $288 Billion
Total Cost of Initiatives: $1.701 Trillion
Bush:
Payments Out: $1.544 Trillion -- Greater than Obama
Revenue Cuts: $2.485 Trillion -- Greater than Obama
Total Cost of Initiatives: $4.029 Trillion -- Greater than Obama
Note: I have set aside the "cost" of the TARP bailout because those funds did not come straight from the Treasury and were essentially loans that are being paid back to various degrees. TARP was initiated and authorized under the Bush Administration. Originally expected to cost $356 billion, the most recent estimates of the cost is down to $89 billion, which is 42% less than the taxpayers' cost of the Savings and loan crisis of the late 1980s.
I also set aside the auto bailout (also loans), which was about $50 billion total, parts of which were authorized across both administrations. Bush authorized bridging loans of $9.4 billion for GM and $4 billion for Chrysler; Obama authorized additional loans of $16.6 billion for General Motors and $5 billion for Chrysler.
Neither amount really changes the fact that the various initiatives of the Obama Administration are less than half those of the Bush Administration.
If you feel that I have missed something important in terms of spending, please let me know and I will add it.