Conservative
Type 40
good op/ed piece on Obama's spending. Here are some highlights, but much more in the piece.
President Obama: The Biggest Government Spender In World History - Forbes
President Obama: The Biggest Government Spender In World History - Forbes
The analysis by Internet commentator Rex Nutting on which Obama based his claim begins by telling us What people forget (or never knew) is that the first year of every presidential term starts with a budget approved by the previous administration and Congress. Not exactly.
The previous administration, or President, proposes a budget. The previous Congress approves a budget. And what Congress approves can be radically different from what the President proposes.
But for fiscal year 2009, President Bush in February, 2008 proposed a budget with just a 3% spending increase over the prior year. Fiscal year 2009 ran from October 1, 2008 until September 30, 2009. President Obamas term began on January 20, 2009.
Recall, however, that in 2008 Congress was controlled by Democrat majorities, with Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House, and the restless Senator Obama already running for President, just four years removed from his glorious career as a state Senator in the Illinois legislature. As Hans Bader reported on May 26 for the Washington Examiner, the budget approved and implemented by Pelosi, Obama and the rest of the Congressional Democrat majorities provided for a 17.9 percent increase in spending for fiscal 2009!
The Democrat Congress [in 2008], confident Obama was going to win in 2008, passed only three of fiscal 2009s 12 appropriations bills (Defense, Military Construction and Veterans Affairs, and Homeland Security). The Democrat Congress passed the rest of them [in 2009], and [President] Obama signed them. So Obama played a very direct role in the runaway fiscal 2009 spending explosion.
After just one year of the Obama spending binge, federal spending had already rocketed to 25.2% of GDP, the highest in American history except for World War II. That compares to 20.8% in 2008, and an average of 19.6% during Bushs two terms.
President Obamas own 2013 budget shows that as a result federal debt held by the public will double during Obamas four years as President. That means in just one term President Obama will have increased the national debt as much as all prior Presidents, from George Washington to George Bush, combined.