Obama’s Spending Record

There are plenty of people putting out information about Obama’s spending history. Some are trying to make the case that he’s a big spending liberal (or even socialist), while some argue he’s a fiscal conservative. John Hinderaker once again tries to convince his readers of the former. He writes:

 the Obama administration has run up spending and debt totals that dwarf those of any other presidency

He then goes on to list the budget deficit by year and points out the fact deficits have been at record highs since 2009 when Obama took office.

These are the federal budget deficits for fiscal years 2005 through 2012 (2012 is estimated):

2005: 318,000,000,000
2006: 248,000,000,000
2007: 161,000,000,000

2008: 459,000,000,000

2009: 1,413,000,000,000
2010: 1,293,000,000,000
2011: 1,300,000,000,000
2012: 1,327,000,000,000

Look at the big jump in the deficit after Obama took office. According to Hinderaker, that jump is due to Obama’s big spending increases. But CBO estimates of the 2009 deficit published two weeks before Obama took office were $1,186,000,000,000. 84% of the 2009 deficit was already baked in the cake before Obama took office. Blaming him for that is, at best, deceptive.

What Hinderaker also fails to mention is these deficits have mostly been caused by a large drop in tax revenues due to the recession and an increase in Social Security and unemployment benefits – not Obama.

For anyone interested in a detailed breakdown of Obama’s actual spending record, FactCheck.org has a very good analysis. They estimate Obama has increased spending at an analyzed rate of 3.1% during his first three years – less than half the rate of the previous administration.