President Obama has shattered the budget record for first-year presidents -- spending nearly double what his predecessor did when he came into office and far exceeding the first-year tabs for any other U.S. president in history.
In fiscal 2009 the federal government spent $3.52 trillion -- $2.8 trillion in 2000 dollars, which sets a benchmark for comparison. That fiscal year covered the last three-and-a-half months of George W. Bush's term and the first eight-and-a-half months of Obama's.
That price tag came with a $1.4 trillion deficit, nearly $1 trillion more than last year. The overall budget was about a half-trillion more than Bush's for 2008, his final full fiscal year in office.
That's a big increase. But compared with other presidents' first years in office, Obama is running circles around them.
It goes on like that.
Fiscal 2009 started October 1, 2008 and ended September 30, 2009. This was Bush's last budget, beginning before the election.
It included a bit of the stimulus spending.
There is a propaganda drumbeat aimed at DC lawmakers, that the deficit is too large. Question, will they attack the largest item in the budget, spending about $1 trillion total on military? Or will they go after what our government spends to benefit us?
My question, whose job is it to counter this kind of thing? The Obama administration is just letting it hit them. In fact, instead of fighting back, they validate the perception that they have ballooned the deficit. The problem is this hurts the rest of us out here. What to do?
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