“In fiscal year
2000, Clinton's last as president, the federal government spent $1.77 trillion.
Multiply that number by two, and you're almost to federal spending in FY 2010:
$3.72 trillion in Obama's first wholly owned budget. If we had limited
government's growth—not actually cut government, mind you, but limited its
growth—at the rates of inflation and population-expansion, the 2010 federal
budget would have been a much more affordable $2.50 trillion. Instead of “fiscal
cliff” on Jan. 1, 2013, we'd be facing a federal budget surplus.”
-Matt Welch, 28-Nov-12 (Link)
As long as we remember that during Clinton's last year, the government also spent more than it took in. There was no surplus, only more deficit. Worth mentioning because the myth of a Clinton surplus always comes up.
ReplyDeleteWhat Obama did (and this really is rather shady) was use the 2009 budget, replete with bailouts, stimulus, omnibus, etc., as his baseline and basically took it from there (a series of continuing resolutions). It's kind of like having your house burn down and spending year after year the same amount as you did in year one.
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