From another right-wing think-tank, super-pac paid-to-lie, myth-producing band of thieves {cough} 'Job Creators' ... FreedomWorks is back at it again.
(FreedomWorks, also one of the original backers of the Tea Party Nation, the one with all those million dollar Buses ... to move yahoos from point A to Point B.)
Now they are out there promoting the latest Romney Myth:
Big Spender: The Truth about the Obama Administration’s Out of Control Spending
FreedomWorks -- May 29, 2012
President Obama and his allies on the Left want you to believe that government spending is under control. They want you to believe that this economic downturn will only go away with government help. They want you to believe that the President is not a big spender.
There’s just one problem. It’s not true.
White House spokesman Jay Carney went so far as to castigate the press recently for “not doing their homework” on this issue. He lectured the White House press corps, saying:
The rate of spending — federal spending — increase is lower under President Obama than all of his predecessors since Dwight Eisenhower, including all of his Republican predecessors.
[...]
An easy way to analyze federal spending is to compare the size of spending to the overall US economy. Pulling from official White House documents, Kessler shares this handy figure:
2008: 20.8 percent
2009: 25.2 percent
2010: 24.1 percent
2011: 24.1 percent
2012: 24.3 percent
2013: 23.3 percent
Note [in Bold Red Font] the massive surge in spending in 2009, President Obama’s first year in office. Remember the stimulus package? It seems to have been the beginning to the President’s dangerous spending binge.
While it’s true that it’s Congress, not the President, who passes a budget, we see some worrisome trends when we look at how much spending President Obama has requested. Using CBO estimates for the President’s yearly budget proposals, Kessler observes that Obama consistently wanted more money than Congress was willing to give him. In 2010, his budget would have spent $3.67 trillion, but Congress only enacted $3.46 trillion. In 2011, he wanted to spend $3.80 trillion; Congress passed $3.60 trillion.
[...]
Spending that is 20 to 25% of GDP -- is that something to worry about?
I decided to give those Office of Management and Budget (OMB) numbers a whirl myself ... to chart out some easy to digest historical trendlines, to put that right-wing hysteria into some Historical perspective ...
OMB Table 1.3 on this White House site, provides the "scary numbers" that Romney and Associates are trying to turn into an out-of-control Frat Party on Capital Hill -- for the "last 3 and half years."
Here is what the wild spending trend looks like in its Historical context, adjusted for inflation, as a Percentage of GDP:
Here's what it looks like with some grid-lines to help bracket the offending Administrations:
[here a much wider version of that last chart, with more details.]
It hardly looks like the hyperplexic End-of-America that the GOP is NOW making it out to be. Funny, where were these Debbie-downers back, say between 2005-2009?
They were probably the same guys ordering the Steak and Martinis and all those Deregulation Desserts, about to stick the Next Guy with their Tab, as soon as he walked onto the 2009 scene.
A few parting questions (hopefully some Media-authority type will ask):
1) WHO puts together the Federal Budget a year before it happens, say like in 2008, for the 2009 "Outlay" activity?
2) WHAT direction is the Federal spending Trendline headed in, since it Peaked in 2009?
3) WHY was that Bail Out spending spike necessary again, in 2008 and 2009, in order to prevent ATM dispensers around the world, from being boarded up and sold off for scrap?
4) WOULDN'T raising some Revenue, say by letting the Bush Tax Cuts sunset, actually help IMMENSELY to put America's economic house back in order?
Answer those questions accurately, and you will really have something to worry about, if Mitt Romney and Associates get back into power, to resume the GOP Frat party right where they left off ...
Letting the Corporate Free-Market Bankers run wild, like there's No Tomorrow.
Because with those Off-the-Books, Sell-off-for-parts, Corporate-yahoos in charge -- there won't be.