Romney claimed in the first debate that Obama accumulated a larger deficit than all other presidents before him combined. Is that right?

Looking at the charts, starting in 1948 with Truman, and adding up all deficits until Bush 43 in 2008, the total deficit combined is:

$7.4346 Trillion

Obama’s deficit, from 2009 to 2011, NOT INCLUDING 2012 yet, combined is:

$4.2870 Trillion

While Romney’s statement is not completely accurate, once the numbers for 2012 are in, it will be close enough.

Romney has a point.

But let’s be fair. The deficit for all presidents combined before Bush 43 is:

$4.0663 Trillion

The deficit for George W. Bush alone is:

$3.3683 Trillion

There is an apparent pattern of the last president accumulating as much as all others combined before him. That alone tells me that we need to do something drastic. We cannot have this happen again. We could not make it through another 8 years of this trend.