From Jon Perr at PERRspectives:
It is an article of conservative faith that federal spending under President Obama is “out of control.” As the 2016 GOP Platform states in an amazing revision of recent history:
The Administration’s policies systematically crippled economic growth and job creation, driving up government costs and driving down revenues. When Congressional Republicans tried to reverse course, the Administration manufactured fiscal crises — phony government shutdowns — to demand excessive spending.
As the data and history show, every claim in those two sentences is flat-out wrong. (As an aside, don’t overlook the 800-pound donkey in the room: the economy almost always performs better under Democratic presidents.) And just last week, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office once again demolished the last one. Taking inflation into account, federal spending has actually declined under Barack Obama.
Of course, that truth is not apparent from the recent headlines. While the Wall Street Journal predictably warned “U.S. budget deficit rose in fiscal year 2016, first time in five years,” the Associated Press led with this cautionary note:
The government ran a $587 billion budget deficit for the just-completed fiscal year, a 34 percent spike over last year after significant improvement from the record deficits of President Barack Obama’s first years in office.
Friday’s deficit news, while sobering, does not appear bad enough to jolt a gridlocked Washington into action to stem the flow of red ink.
But there’s good reason that action isn’t called for now.
Good God Almighty! Sure spending has fallen under Obama… and Hillary is a paragon of virtue and integrity.
How the *%$! do we explain that the national debt under Obama which has now eclipsed all debt from every other presidential administration since the inception of our nation combined? (Including the spending of George W. Bush, which Obama touted as irresponsible and unpatriotic.)
Damn, it is amazing the crap that people will spout and twist facts for in order to give their party cover.
It is a poor article, but you know that the deficit and the debt are not the same thing.