[107] Adjusted for inflation, median household income dropped by $1,175 between 2000 and 2007,[108] while Professor Ken Homa of Georgetown University has noted that "Median real after-tax household income went up two percent".[109] The poverty rate increased from 11.3 percent in 2000 to 12.3 percent in 2006 after peaking at 12.7 percent in 2004.[110] By October 2008, due to increases in spending,[111]: 273  the national debt had risen to $11.3 trillion,[112] more than doubling it since 2000.[113][114][unreliable source?]Most debt was accumulated as a result of what became known as the "Bush tax cuts" and increased national security spending.[115] In March 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama said when he voted against raising the debt ceiling: "The fact that we are here today to debate raising America's debt limit is a sign of leadership failure."[116] By the end of Bush's presidency, unemployment climbed to 7.2 percent.[117]

2008 financial crisis
In December 2007, the United States entered the longest post–World War II recession,[93] caused by a housing market correction, a subprime mortgage crisis, soaring oil prices, and other factors. 