Right-Wing Claims About Spending Under Obama Are Completely Wrong – And That’s a Problem
Talk to anyone on the Republican side of the aisle this election cycle, and you will hear one thing over and over (and over, and over….) Namely, you’ll hear how “out-of-control” spending is killing the country’s economy and that it’s all Obama’s fault. This plays into the two great dreams of the Republican Party: 1) to get rid of Barack Obama, and 2) to slash government spending, and with it, the size and scope of government itself. Unfortunately for those spinning this tale, those pesky things called facts are getting in the way:
As you can see from the chart to the right, government spending under Obama, including his signature stimulus bill, is rising at a 1.4% annualized pace — slower than at any time in nearly 60 years. The big surge in federal spending happened in fiscal 2009, before Obama took office. Since then, spending growth has been relatively flat. Here are the facts, via the Wall Street Journal:
• In the 2009 fiscal year — the last of George W. Bush’s presidency — federal spending rose by 17.9% from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion. Check the official numbers at the Office of Management and Budget.
• In fiscal 2010 — the first budget under Obama — spending fell 1.8% to $3.46 trillion. • In fiscal 2011, spending rose 4.3% to $3.60 trillion.
• In fiscal 2012, spending is set to rise 0.7% to $3.63 trillion, according to the Congressional Budget Office’s estimate of the budget that was agreed to last August.
• Finally in fiscal 2013 — the final budget of Obama’s term — spending is scheduled to fall 1.3% to $3.58 trillion. Read the CBO’s latest budget outlook.
So this is great news, right? One of the primary attacks on President Obama turns out to be unsupportable by the facts. Woo hoo!
Sure, it’s great if all you care about is scoring a political point. But if you actually care about a healthy US economy and about a robust recovery which benefits all Americans, not just those at the top, it’s pretty dismal news. The lack of government spending following the deepest and most prolonged downturn since the Great Depression is a key factor in the painfully slow recovery.
How bad is it? As the WSJ piece points out, “Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.” The author goes on to explain that this is worse than it implies, because once you account for inflation and population growth, on a per capita basis, spending is actually down. And the Democrats are gleefully prancing about, just about thrilled to death to have this vindication. sigh
This is just a rehash of what Michael Linden put together for the Center for American Progress. And it serves the same purpose – to “bust the myth” from conservatives that Obama has presided over growth in federal spending. But of course, that feeds another myth, that such restraint is a wise course in the midst of an economic recession. We know that the opposite is true, based on all the available evidence in virtually every country in the world. Just today, the head of the IMF is begging Britain to take advantage of their low borrowing costs and use fiscal stimulus to kickstart their economy.
Our borrowing costs are just as low. And so if you want to explain the sluggish recovery in the US, if you want to explain the suffering of millions of people through elevated unemployment going on its fourth year, you can use the exact same statistics and give the exact same answer – because under Obama, growth in government spending is “at the lowest level in nearly 60 years.” (David Dayen, FDL — emphasis mine)
Before I get a bunch of nasty comments about me undermining our beloved POTUS, I’m not laying all the blame at Obama’s feet. Certainly as leader of the both the nation and the party, Obama deserves blame; but the entire Democratic Party and their inability to move legislation that makes for tough campaigns but good policy are on the hook for this.
(Cross-posted from The Cassandra Files)
Sandi Behrns
Exec. Editor, Progressive Congress News. Policy wonk, blogger, new media & web developer, and mom. Feminist. Progressive. Bubble-blower.
2 Responses to Right-Wing Claims About Spending Under Obama Are Completely Wrong – And That’s a Problem
Recent Comments
- Kucuka.net on Intellectual Property is a bad thing.
- evgeniy levchenko datums aangemeld on Debt slavery is a natural consequence of unregulated capitalism
- best career counselor on What will it take to address the climate emergency
- hyip on Debt slavery is a natural consequence of unregulated capitalism
- Tony Williams on Debt slavery is a natural consequence of unregulated capitalism
Blogroll
- 4dancers
- Aaron Krager
- Amygdala
- Autonomy for All
- Away Point
- Blue Jersey
- Bluemars
- Brad Blog
- Campaign for America's Future
- Cassandra Files
- Clear It with Sidney
- Cogitamus
- Crooks and Liars
- Cucking Stool
- Daily Show with Jon Stewart
- Dirty Hippie Sports Talk
- Disaffected and It Feels So Good
- Dispatches from the Culture Wars
- Dork with a Nerd Rising
- Eastern Sunz
- Florida Progressive Coalition
- Focal Points
- FOK News Channel
- Frederick Clarkson
- Frustrated Teacher
- Greatscat!
- HandPicked Nation
- Jazz from Hell
- jazz89 KUVO Public Radio
- Kenneth J. Bernstein
- La Bloga
- Lee Camp
- Litbrit
- Live Free or Die Alliance
- Live from the Left Coast
- MarioWire
- Media Matters
- Merge Left
- Mind Potion Radio
- MPA Political
- New York Communities for Change
- Nuclear Diner
- Political Carnival
- Progressive Leadership Action Network
- Progressive PST
- Radio or Not
- Republic Report
- Scholar as Citizen
- Scholars and Rogues
- Seeing the Forest
- Smirking Chimp
- Smoking Politics
- SomaFM
- Somos Tejanos
- Speak Out California
- Spedwybabs
- Spocko's Brain
- Stark Reports
- StarTalk
- Suburban Guerilla
- Symphony of Science
- Talk to Action
- thereisnospoon
- Today's Workplace
- Truth Vigilante
- Waking from the American Dream
- Worldwide Hippies
- WTF Is It Now?!?
- Error: Could not open handle for fopen() to http://heyhippies.tumblr.com/api/read?num=2
Category Cloud
Activism Americans Barack Obama Blogging Budget Bush II Administration Business Capitalism Class Warfare Congress Conservatives Corporatism Corruption Democracy Democrats Dirty Hippies Economy Education Elections Extremism Government Greed Health Care Jobs Journalism labor Media messaging Obama Administration Politics Progressives Religious Right Reproductive Rights Republicans Satire Social Security Taxation Tea Party Uncategorized Unions US Politics Violence Wall Street Wealth Wisconsin
Austerity and Piss Down Your Back and Tell You It’s Raining Conservative economics are crushing the Middle Class and extending the Republican Recession. And the Democrats are embracing it?
Right-Wingers proclaim themselves fiscal conservatives while spending gobs of tax payer cash to keep afloat their dastardly ideas then expect the Democrats to clean up the mess.
Hopefully, Obama has realzied this error and will really spend the cash after 2012.
Hopefully, Obama will have a Congress to back him; he doesn’t write the checks and certainly can’t just push legislation through an immovable wall.