The U.S. has never before had a President who thinks so little of the American people that he imagines he can win re-election running on the opposite of reality. But that is the reality of President Obama today.
Waving a planted press commentary, Obama recently claimed on the campaign stump, “federal spending since I took office has risen at the slowest pace of any President in almost 60 years.”
After almost 4 years and 5 trillion dollars additional debt, unemployment is still at 8.3%, median income dropping, more people than ever on food stamps, isn’t it time to stop blaming Bush. Now The Middle East and North Africa is burning. This guy is starting to make Carter look good.
But so many of the lefties on this board support record debt as long as it is helping expand the safety net. If it helps one person, it is worth spending one million dollars. They are happy that insurance companies lost their million dollar limit per policy holder. Whatever it takes to give chronically ill people a few more minutes of life in a semi-vegatative state.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
FredHayek wrote: But so many of the lefties on this board support record debt as long as it is helping expand the safety net. If it helps one person, it is worth spending one million dollars. They are happy that insurance companies lost their million dollar limit per policy holder. Whatever it takes to give chronically ill people a few more minutes of life in a semi-vegatative state.
A smart leader, a good leader, would have been working on the growth of the private sector from day one. A smart president would know that real growth comes from private businesses and not from a government printing press.
I'm at the point now where I think the only way people on the left will understand why Keynsian Economics won't work with THIS economy, is to let Obama's dream of a new America come true... at least for 4 more years. I think we could withstand it, but by the time his term is up, Americans will finally see this credit spending is killing this country and business growth needs to be the #1 priorty again. This will also kill Hillary's chances in 2016 because she we bill connected to this lousy administraion (unless she becomes vocal about the damage being done).JMO
The left is angry because they are now being judged by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.
Arguably the biggest lie coming from the Republicans and the Romney campaign is that President Obama is a tax and spend liberal who's directly and personally responsible for record deficits and a crushing national debt.
Not only is Mitt Romney telling his supporters that President Obama continues to spend out of control, but additionally that the president is responsible for doubling the budget deficit since he took office. This is not a new attack. Republicans who blindly greenlit trillions in Bush-era spending have been engaged in this nonsense practically since the minute the president was inaugurated.
Over 20% of those with jobs are working for a goverment, either local, state, or federal. And of so many in the private sector many of their wages are paid indirectly by the federal goverment. For example, we sell dialysis equipment. People on dialysis are on a goverment program so the Feds are paying the bills of the companies that buy our equipment. My friends who are civil engineers, most of their projects are goverment financed.
Like OTN, the future looks pretty bleak. Even if the GOP wins, spending will at most only slow.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Mitt Romney is wrong to claim that spending under Obama has "accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history," because it's actually risen "slower than at any time in nearly 60 years."
Explaining the results
So why the disconnect between Obama’s image as a big spender and the reality of how much federal spending has actually grown?
First, Obama’s record on debt is a lot less flattering than is his record on federal government spending. During the same time that spending is poised to be increasing by 1.4 percent per year under Obama, the debt will be increasing by 14.6 percent per year. The reason? Year by year, federal revenues haven’t been keeping up with spending, due to the struggling national economy (which has held back tax revenues) and a continuation of tax cuts. And each year there’s an annual deficit, the national debt grows.
Second, federal spending under Obama is higher as a share of gross domestic product than it has been in most of the previous 60 years. That, too is because of the economy, which has simultaneously slowed the growth of GDP and boosted government spending for programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.
Third, the aging of the baby boomers has driven a rise in entitlement spending that is masking cuts Obama and the GOP Congress have made, and have promised to make, in discretionary spending. Using outlays as the unit of measurement, as Nutting and the Facebook post have done, means focusing on money already spent. It does not take into account future spending that’s been committed to but not yet carried out.
And finally, many Americans associate Obama with the high-profile legislative activities of his first year or two, when initiatives such as the stimulus sent spending upward the fastest. Since then, spending has slowed, thanks in part to spending cuts pushed by congressional Republicans.
Which brings us to another important issue: The president is not all-powerful, so his record on spending was accomplished in collaboration with congressional Republicans.
Our ruling
The Facebook post says Mitt Romney is wrong to claim that spending under Obama has "accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history," because it's actually risen "slower than at any time in nearly 60 years."
Obama has indeed presided over the slowest growth in spending of any president using raw dollars, and it was the second-slowest if you adjust for inflation. The math simultaneously backs up Nutting’s calculations and demolishes Romney’s contention. The only significant shortcoming of the graphic is that it fails to note that some of the restraint in spending was fueled by demands from congressional Republicans. On balance, we rate the claim Mostly True.
Slowest rate of growth of spending? I will let the Republican do-nothing Congress take credit for that. But the country is still adding 1 trilion in debt every six months and because no one is inspired to build a business by Barack. In fact, he mocks people who claim to have built a business and create jobs. The economy is still stagnant. Hard to justify new hiring under Obama.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
A smart leader, a good leader, would have been working on the growth of the private sector from day one. A smart president would know that real growth comes from private businesses and not from a government printing press.
