Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Politics In General Obama spending binge never happened

Still trying to determine what that "fact" is based on.... It seems to have been pulled from somewhere.

...from the crack of this balloon.

Let's see if we can discuss this without getting into personal attacks, folks. I think it is incumbent on anyone asserting something as "fact" to provide a reference for the source. Also, I think it incumbent on such assertions to understand the accounting principles upon which such "facts" are based, and the governmental budgeting process when assigning blame.

Having said that, I find it interesting to note a discrepancy in the argument: Asserting that "President Obama has created $5 Trillion in new debt," but at the same time "not having passed a budget." Isn't there a fundamental disconnect between those concepts? It is simply not possible for the President to have incurred new debt because he does not control the purse strings. Only Congress can appropriate money and incur debt on behalf of the United States. U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8:
Now, I am willing to admit that President Bush talked Congress into gutting the revenue stream of the government and setting a course for excessive deficits. I have yet to see any evidence to support the argument that President Obama was able to do nearly as much damage.

Just to put some meat on those bones: The Bush Deficit; The Truth About Who's Responsible For The Explosion In Government Spending; Who's To Blame for the Massive Deficit? - Now, before anyone runs off and accuses me of picking "liberal" sources, note that #2 is from Business Insider and #3 from the CATO Institute - clearly bastions of big-government liberal thinking.

And of course the lead article is from the WSJ, not know for its liberal leanings.

Science really should study the Republican brain, it must have some truly marvelous ways of denial.

I believe that topic is current spending increases, not deficit.

I think that no one has shown that increased spending by the current administration has generated the large deficits

So while the deficits may be deplorable, we still await evidence that recent spending increases are the cause of that problem.

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I guess that depends on your definition of large. A deficit is caused by a combination of falling revenues and over spending, and in this case a moron controling the pocketbook.

And of course adding $5T+ to the deficit is a bad thing, unless you are a federal employee.

And that moron be Boehner and his NonCon cronies... yup.

i think i can answer that question correctly

almost all (notice i left some wiggle room as there may actually be a conservative who does use the "facts") conservatives conveniently assume the Bush 2009 fiscal budget as Obama's first budget and thus they immediately have Obama at -$1.4T deficit

the correct accounting would be to include budgets from 2010, 2011, 2012 which are only three budgets and total about $4T in deficits and if we include the projected 2013 budget deficit coming in at -$900B and adding we would have totaled deficits of about -$5T

i do not think Ma_Rep knows or understands where the number comes from as this is a case of accidentally getting the right (close anyway) answer if we include a proposed budget

but don;t let me confuse you with the facts ... simply believe what you want to