I like facts….specifically – I like charts displaying facts in easy to understand and comprehensible ways. This brilliant chart is courtesy of Talking Points Memo; it shows the increase in government spending by President from the inception of their presidency and one year prior.
Now – I realize that most people can’t seem to understand how President Obama has actually overseen the smallest increase in government spending when compared to every president since 1980…because – we have $1 trillion deficits right? Well…we do, but those deficits are not so much about spending as this chart shows; it has more to do with the fact that President Obama has cut taxes more than any President in history. Talking Points Memo gives insights:
Clinton and Obama, who both lost control of the federal purse strings to an intransigent opposing party halfway through their first terms, were comparatively hamstrung. Politically, this proved to be a much bigger problem for Obama than it was for Clinton — Obama, after all, inherited a historic financial and economic crisis. But Obama’s economy is finally picking up on its own, and just in time. This Congress isn’t about to give him a hand — and, for good measure, thanks to last year’s debt limit deal, Obama’s consigned to a continued downward trend in spending for the next couple of years at least.
Another way to look at it is this chart provided by the NY Times. The NY Times explains:
This graph shows that under Mr. Bush, tax cuts and war spending were the biggest policy drivers of the swing from projected surpluses to deficits from 2002 to 2009. Budget estimates that didn’t foresee the recessions in 2001 and in 2008 and 2009 also contributed to deficits. Mr. Obama’s policies, taken out to 2017, add to deficits, but not by nearly as much.
And just another reminder about how much Republicans really don’t care about deficits…as we’ve presented before….the chart says it all:
