This data is pretty silly. In reality, Federal spending as a share of the economy will average over 24 percent during Obama’s term, and each and every year of that term will see a higher share than during any year since the Second World War.
Under Obama we have run some of the highest budget deficits in US history.
Also, the data only looks at discretionary spending, which is deceptive.
The claim by market watch furthermore relies on statistics cherry-picked from different sources and, tellingly, uses CBO projections rather than actual outlays, and lets the President off the hook for FY 2009 - a budget that was passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
Honestly, these claims are absurd. I can't believe people are taking them seriously. And wasn't it Democrats saying how greating big spending was? Bragging how their big spending on the economy saved it? Now suddenly they are trying to say they spend
less. Nobody else finds this absurd?
Believe it, Obama’s a Big Spender*|*The Moral Liberal
This data is pretty silly." - Well, it's is far better then a complete lack of data. You have managed to be wrong about everything, making incorrect statements and presenting no data to back it up. Are you capable of any original analysis?
My data is direct from the US government web site for the federal budget. While I have gone at it a bit different then the author, in terms of percentage change and the like, the results are in the same ballpark. So it's clear that he is using the same budget data.
So what is it that you find "silly" about the budget data when discussing the budget? Is that the issue, using actual data?
Straight out of the box, your presented article is bull shit in saying "will average over 24 percent during Obama’s term". Where is this crystal ball? When an article starts out with a statement of what will happen, that pretty tells us that it's all just a bunch of BS.
The claim of "will average over 24 percent during Obama’s term" is from the Heritage Foundation. They also predicted, using "dynamic analysis", that the Bush Era tax cuts would completely pay of the Federal Debt. That didn't pan out very well. The Heritage Foundation has no credibility.
That is okay. All we need to do is figure out where the "will average over 24 percent" comes from. Do you know?
1) "FY 2009 - a budget that was passed by a Democratic Congress and signed into law by President Obama."
"The United States federal budget for fiscal year 2009 began as a spending request by President George W. Bush to fund government operations for October 2008 – September 2009. The final FY2009 budget was signed by President Barack Obama on March 12, 2009. Figures shown in this article do not reflect the actual appropriations by Congress for Fiscal Year 2009."
"The budget itself was not approved until March 2009 by the 111th Congress and signed into law by Barack Obama on March 12, 2009 nearly 6 months after the fiscal year began."
2009 United States federal budget - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Saying "signed into law by President Obama", that is cherry picking because it picks one single piece of info out of all others, ignoring the six months of expenditures and the fact that it was submitted by Bush.
2) The CBO projections are for years not yet realized. For the years that have passed, the actual data is used. It cannot be cherry picking if it is a) comprehensive and b) uses all the available data. There is no other data for the budget except what is presented. You don't seem to understand what "cherry picking" is.
The budget data, provided by the CBO, is one data set that included the actual budget for years passed with projected budgets for years to come. That isn't "different data sources". It is the same source.
3) I looked at discretionary spending, for one data set, the one labeled "discretionary spending". The other one, just labeled "Federal Budget, % Increase Real Per Capita", is not discretionary spending.
I decided to look at discretionary spending because the mandatory spending is self funded and doesn't have anything to do with the deficit. The other is that it isn't under the control of the Congress and Presidency.
What is deceptive about that?
(Basically, you made a completely lame attempt at fault finding and failed miserably You failed because you have no clue what your even talking about.)
4) What the federal share of the economy it is isn't the point of the article. The federal share of the economy is interesting. But what is your point? Did you line up the budgets correctly when you conclude "will average over 24 percent during Obama’s term".
How do you get "will average"? Using CBO projections?
I am just guessing here, but I thin that the federal share of the economy would be 100* G/GDP. Just as a bit of a guess, I suppose that a change in that would be the result of either G changing or GDP changing. It all kind of depends on the state of things.
And, over the years, it has varied as
..........Min..........17.2%
..........Max..........22.7%
..........Avg..........19.9%
..........Stdev........1.35%
So far, for Obama's term, it has actually been
Mar 2010 ... 20.8%
Jun 2010 ... 20.8%
Sep 2010 ... 20.7%
Dec 2010 ... 20.5%
Mar 2011 ... 20.3%
Jun 2011 ... 20.2%
Sep 2011 ... 20.1%
Dec 2011 ... 19.7%
So, it's slightly higher than the average.
Where is that 24 percent?
5) Nor have we run the highest budget deficits unless your stupid enough to do total nominal dollars. In total nominal dollars, it's always higher each successive year simply because population and inflation increase. That would be worse then cherry picking, it would be down right bonehead.
The Debt held by the public, which gives us a day to day accounting, increased by $918 billion, the largest rate of increase ever, from September 18, 2008 to December 9th, 2008. That was the big bailouts. It was under the Bush admin. It was required, however objectionable. The auto industry loans were okay. The banking one, that one sucked.
Were you simply not paying attention to when that happened? Obama and McCain stopped campaigning to go back to Washington to vote on the bank bailout. Then, when they resumes, McCain flat out said that Obama was better at economics then he. I almost fell out of my chair when he said it. I always thought the man had hella integrity.
I prefer real dollar per capita. It eliminates the confounding population and cost of living increase issue. In those terms, 2010 was a lower deficit then was Bush's 2009. 2011 was just a bit large, per capita real dollar, then the 2009 deficit.
6) "'wasn't it Democrats saying how greating big spending was? Bragging how their big spending on the economy saved it? Now suddenly they are trying to say they spend
less"
What are you talking about? The author was saying that it was the big spending that saved it? I didn't see that in his article. Is he a Democrat? I didn't see that either. You mean the bailouts of the banks and the auto industry? That spending? Is that the spending the Democrats were raving about?
7) Honestly, you completely lack in any real info. You have no claims because you have nothing to make claims with. You type a bunch of words, with no actual understanding of what your trying to talk about. You lack any substance.