About 4 trillion dollars of additional debt was added to the amount of debt owed by The Treasury during the 8 years of the George W. Bush Presidency.More than another 4 trillion have been added during the two years of the Obama “presidency”.There is an important factor that makes a big difference in those two 4 trillion dollar amounts. Most of the 4 trillion of debt added during the Bush years was debt owed by The Treasury to the various so-called “trust funds” with the Social Security Trust Fund now being the largest cumulative amount at about 2.5 trillion dollars. Thievery? Arguably, yes! But then consider that the federal government as the issuer of a fiat currency cannot effectively collect and “stash” an amount of that same currency in the form of the currency or a financial equivalent such as Treasury notes to be used later. If it is collected, it must be spent near-realtime else it “disappears” from the system.

The United States Federal Government has absolutely perpetrated grand larceny but the thievery that was committed was the act of collecting the money in the first place, not by spening of the money after it had been stolen from those from whom it was being collected.

Most of the 4 trillion of debt added during the first two years of the Obama administration is debt that The Treasury owes to the public–other nations and the citizens and private institutions of other nations included. Whereas the Bush 4 trillion was stolen primarily from us–the current generations–it is our children, grandchildren and subsequent generations from whom the Obama 4 trillion have been stolen.

But the two amounts do have one thing in common. In both cases, the word borrow is a handy euphamism for stole and it is We, the people, our children and subsequent generations who are the victims of larceny on the grandest scale that larceny has ever been perpetrated. And then after having been victimized to the extent that we have, the working assumption is that We are now on the hook to reimburse and make good on the “debts” that have been run up by the kleptocracy that is referred to with another euphamism: The United States Federal Government.

THESE TWO CHARTS ARE OVER-SIMPLIFIED TO THE POINT OF BEING CRUDE, BUT THEY TELL THE STORY OF THE BIG DIFFERENCE.