OTOH, public debt more than doubled to $9+ trillion and personal debt also increased during the Bush Administration.
That meant that we were, as a country, spending $1+ trillion per year above our means.
IMHO, we would have (and should have) had a recession much sooner than we now have and it would have been less severe and we wouldn't have the massive debt we now do.
I give the outgoing Administration no credit for the "good economy" economy we thought we had. We were spending our grandkids money.. Now we're gonna do more of the same.
Well, sort of. Given that Congress appropriates all money, the debt rose under the Republican controlled Congress from 2001 - 2006 by $5,674 trillion to about $7,933 trillion. In Jan 2007 the Democrats took control of Congress and the public debt rose from $7,933 trillion to $10 trillion by fiscal 2008.