Obama Shatters Spending Record for First-Year Presidents

[parocks]

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.


http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009...ar-presidents/

[phill4paul]

Of course he HAD to...every President since G. W.( that's Washington not Bush) left the country in such a pickle that every succeeding president was forced to spend more money than they had a right to fix the problem of their predecessor.

It is for our own good.

[Chester Copperpot]

yeah and im pretty sure that obama deficit includes Bush $700 billion tarp bailout

[Zippyjuan]

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.

It includes most of the stimulus and bailout spending of Bush too. One quarter's budget belongs to Bush.

Fox news article from 2004: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108066,00.html

Federal Budget Grows Massively Under Bush
Monday, January 12, 2004

By Peter Brownfeld

E-Mail Respond Print Share:

WASHINGTON — Conservative observers and budget watchdogs are hoping that President Bush breaks a three-year trend of massive spending increases when he sends Congress his 2005 proposed budget for the federal government on Feb. 2.

But budget experts say while the new Bush budget is likely to be somewhat more austere than previous ones, it will not be radically different.

"There are people in the Republican Party who are becoming increasingly uncomfortable with the high level of spending. The difficulty is going to be controlling spending in an election year," said Maya MacGuineas, executive director of the Committee for a Responsible Budget (search).

In the three years since Bush took office, discretionary spending — money that is not tied to long-term entitlements, including defense, domestic security, education and transportation — has grown by 31.5 percent. Non-discretionary spending — mandatory programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — has reached record highs.

From the first article in the OP:

The overall budget was about a half-trillion more than Bush's for 2008, his final full fiscal year in office.

which says they spent about $500 billion more in fiscal year 2009 than in 2008. TARP alone (which was signed by Bush) was $700 billion. http://money.cnn.com/2008/09/20/news...lout_proposal/

Projections based on Bush spending estimated $1 trillion in debt for fiscal 2009. http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/...efore-bailout/

The government's spending commitments exploded by 25 percent in 2008, putting taxpayers more than $1 trillion in the hole even before the astronomical costs of the economic bailout were taken into account, according to an annual report released Monday by the White House.

so we are mostly looking at Bush spending being blamed on Obama.

[Sematary]

You should NEVER listen to FAUX News. I have no doubt that Obamas First year budget is a doozy but FAUX News is lying to you when they tell you the last 8 and 1/2 months belong to Obama - because they don't. Obama's first budget begins THIS MONTH.

Edit: Woops - I was off by a month. His first budget began in October.

[MelissaWV]

You should NEVER listen to FAUX News. I have no doubt that Obamas First year budget is a doozy but FAUX News is lying to you when they tell you the last 8 and 1/2 months belong to Obama - because they don't. Obama's first budget begins THIS MONTH.

God help us all.

[Sematary]

God help us all.

Perhaps you could explain that comment a little further.

[MelissaWV]

Perhaps you could explain that comment a little further.

Bush was bad for our nation's coffers, definitely. The wars, the stimulus, the other crap... it was out of hand. Obama, though, is continuing all of that and has added to it. If his budget starts this month, then God help us all, because the problem is about to get compounded repeatedly. We are still at war, we are still funding idiotic stimulus programs, and now we're going to fund healthcare and other programs.

[Sematary]

Bush was bad for our nation's coffers, definitely. The wars, the stimulus, the other crap... it was out of hand. Obama, though, is continuing all of that and has added to it. If his budget starts this month, then God help us all, because the problem is about to get compounded repeatedly. We are still at war, we are still funding idiotic stimulus programs, and now we're going to fund healthcare and other programs.

Well, of course he is. I was simply pointing out that FOX News is an illegitimate news organization that blatantly lies to it's audience and distorts the facts to meet it's own agenda. Certainly the other lame stream outlets are biased as well but they aren't nearly as blatant about it and you can actually trust SOME of the news coming out of their newsrooms.