The debt from Bush came from a war that was necessary. The main economic problems came from Clinton when he made a bill saying every American needs to own a home. So people with no or bad jobs were able to get loans for homes they couldn't afford, thus leading to all the default loans that cause the housing industry to collapse. Then those housing loan and investment companies/firms (AIG, Freddy Mac, Fannie May, etc.) went under from all these default loans. Oh and people like Barnie Frank gave people false hope by telling congress that Freddy Mac and Fannie May were "sound".