--- title: FDR, Not Obama, Had the Highest Budget Deficits description: Hint: It wasn't Barack Obama canonical: https://time.com/3306060/which-president-accrued-the-highest-budget-deficits/ author: FindTheBest/Natalie Morin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-09-09T21:14:27.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T10:04:18.911Z article:section: Politics og:title: FDR, Not Obama, Had the Highest Budget Deficits og:description: Hint: It wasn't Barack Obama og:url: https://time.com/3306060/which-president-accrued-the-highest-budget-deficits/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: FDR, Not Obama, Had the Highest Budget Deficits twitter:description: Hint: It wasn't Barack Obama twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Which President Accrued The Highest Budget Deficits? by [FindTheBest/Natalie Morin](https://time.com/author/findthebestnatalie-morin/) ## FindTheBest/Natalie Morin Sep 9, 2014 9:14 PM UTC by [FindTheBest/Natalie Morin](https://time.com/author/findthebestnatalie-morin/) ## FindTheBest/Natalie Morin Sep 9, 2014 9:14 PM UTC When looking at the United States’ massive amount of national debt, many Americans focus blame directly on the president. In fact, CNN [surveyed](http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/06/cnn-poll-is-bush-still-to-blame-for-economy/) 1,010 adults nationwide earlier this year and found that 44% still believe that President Bush and the Republican party were “primarily responsible for the country’s current economic problems.” But was it this former president who left the country in its worst shape at the end of his two terms? With [data](http://federal-budget.findthebest.com/) provided by the White House Office of Management and Budget and the Council of Economic Advisors, research engine [FindTheBest](http://www.findthebest.com/) ranked the 14 most recent presidents by the total deficit they accrued during their presidencies—so far, in the case of Barack Obama—as a percentage of the Gross Domestic Product of their time in office. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3306060/which-president-accrued-the-highest-budget-deficits/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3306060/which-president-accrued-the-highest-budget-deficits/"},"headline":"Which President Accrued The Highest Budget Deficits?","datePublished":"2014-09-09T21:14:27.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T10:04:18.911Z","description":"Hint: It wasn't Barack Obama","url":"https://time.com/3306060/which-president-accrued-the-highest-budget-deficits/","keywords":["Budget","White House","Spending","Presidents"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"FindTheBest/Natalie Morin","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/findthebestnatalie-morin/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/budget/","name":"Budget"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3306060/which-president-accrued-the-highest-budget-deficits/","name":"Which President Accrued The Highest Budget Deficits?"}}]}] ```