Why does the president (of any political party) get blamed for the national debt?

Question

The budget (and the budget deficit along with the resulting national debt) are written in the House of Representatives. So why do we blame the President (or give the President credit) for the budget and the economy?

Answer 1

The president makes demands of the House of Representatives.  What is true is that the House has the ability to refuse, but the issue is that they wouldn't even be thinking about the spending if not for the President's decision to force it on them.  But I'll give you something more forthright.  Bush declared conflict on Iraq before Congress agreed.  This is because he had the ability to do so, but not declare war, without Congress's approval (which would provide money for it).  Bush influenced a vote to approve war on Iraq after initiating this conflict by selling the war as something necessary since we were already there.  This is a direct reason to blame the President for the debt.

Answer 2

The President is a visible leader of a political party, and as such is often a target for anything the opposition party wants to complain about.

Answer 3

the president holds veto power.... the budget does not get passed unless he signs it...

and he sends it back to the congress often because of political interests...

thats why he IS at fault

Answer 4

You are right, the deficit is really mostly mandates wrtten by the House.  Although the president does initiate a spending policy much of it is already legislated in. Also tax policy effects revenues.  A good example is Ronald Reagan lowered the effective rate from 60 to 35% along with manyother initiatives in the 81 tax change.  This resulted in another trillion dollars of oncime by the end of his term.But Congress continued spending and spending.  When Bush Sr came in he was forced to raise taxes (read my lips) and of course the economy contractred (Obama should understand this is what happens when you raise taxes). However,during the Bush sr years Communism and the supposed "peace dividend" happened and the military budget was slashed by Clinton, this toeether with increased revenues from teh Reagan era made a budge surplus for two years which Clinton took credit for but did nothing to achieve it.