Obama's Terrible Deficits and Massive Spending

Yeah, not so much.

Digby:

So, how have the Republicans managed to persuade Americans to buy into the whole “Obama as big spender” narrative?

It might have something to do with the first year of the Obama presidency where the federal budget increased a whopping 17.9% —going from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. I’ll bet you think that this is the result of the Obama sponsored stimulus plan that is so frequently vilified by the conservatives…but you would be wrong.

The first year of any incoming president term is saddled—for better or for worse—with the budget set by the president whom immediately precedes the new occupant of the White House. Indeed, not only was the 2009 budget the property of George W. Bush—and passed by the 2008 Congress—it was in effect four months before Barack Obama took the oath of office.

Jon Perr at Crooks and Liars:

Credit: Perrspectives

 

As documented elsewhere with these five charts, after $2.5 trillion in reductions over the next decade already achieved since 2011, the U.S. national debt is stable in the near and mid-term. Simply put, there is no crisis to justify the additional spending cuts Republicans are now trying to extort. As it turns out, federal spending has hardly budged while deficits have plummeted since Barack Obama first took the oath of office in January 2009.

 Next time you hear some conservatard railing about Obama's spending hurting the economy, say this:

"Yes, Obama accepting republican austerity and spending cuts is exactly why people have no money, people have no jobs."