Government spending

In response to one of my recent posts a commenter (kayez) took issue with my statement that President cut government spending saying "I'm still trying to get my head around the statement that Obama has cut federal spending... that's just unreal" and "If someone blows trillions of dollars and then cuts a billion in spending, to me it's being disingenuous to describe that person on a macro level as having cut federal spending."

First, it should be noted that while the president submits a budget, Congress is in charge of putting together the appropriation bills which will become the final budget. In my previous post I linked to an article about one of President Obama's proposed cuts in Federal spending not cuts enacted by Congress. Having said that there are areas of the budget where cuts have already been made under Obama and his record on spending compares favorably to his predecessors.

The 2009 budget, put in place by President Bush, is only $237 billion less than Obama's 2012 budget. An additional $108 billion of the 2009 budget can be attributed to President Obama due to the stimulus package for a total of $345 billion in additional spending from the last Bush budget to the 2012 Obama budget. After adjusting for inflation the increase (including the 2009 stimulus spending) is only $128 billion from the last Bush budget to the 2012 Obama budget.

$156 billion ($130 adjusted) of the increase from 2009 to 2012 is interest on debt we owe. It is difficult to consider the interest we pay on our national debt as increased spending by President Obama especially given the fact that our 2011 federal revenue is below that of the 2000 revenue. Another $143 billion ($123 adjusted) in increases is due to increased spending on Defense, Medicare, Social Security. All of which the President has proposed cuts to.

If Congress were to keep Social Security and Medicare spending rates at their 2010 levels, President Obama will have decreased the budget by 1.5% per year over four years. Additionally under President Obama non-defense discretionary spending falls by a rate of 4.4% per year or a total of $239 billion.

The reality is that as President, Obama has presided over the smallest increase in Federal budget in a term since the end of World War 2, and the largest cut to discretionary spending over the past 40 years, while also proposing further cuts. Blaming him for Congress' failure to act on these proposals because Republicans have decided that their goal is to make Obama a one term president is not proof that he is some sort of big spending liberal.