Thread: President Obama Q&A at the GOP House Issues Conference

Originally Posted by riooso

I though it was interesting when someone asked how Obama could rail against Bush for overspending $150 Billion his last year in office when Obama's government is overspending that much each month?


Later,
Richard

Actually the 2008 budget deficit would be about $455 Billion, not $150 Billion. But that only tells a part of the story as the debt jumped up by $1 Trillion that year. Someone also conveniently glosses over the deficit on a sizable portion of FY2009. That budget was signed by the President in October 2008 and was already deficit spending while funding only the first 6 months of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Originally Posted by MichaelP

Actually the 2008 budget deficit would be about $455 Billion, not $150 Billion. But that only tells a part of the story as the debt jumped up by $1 Trillion that year. Someone also conveniently glosses over the deficit on a sizable portion of FY2009. That budget was signed by the President in October 2008 and was already deficit spending while funding only the first 6 months of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Thanks for the clarification. So Obama and the houses are spending the same amount?


Later,
Richard

Until the 2009 and 2010 numbers get checked and confirmed, it is hard to say exactly how wide the total deficit spending is or will be. Right now, we can just see the planned budget deficit... there's still the out of budget spending.

I'm not saying the current administration is spending less than the previous administration by any means... just that the picture of the previous administration that is painted by the Republican party isn't exactly realistic. Budget deficit spending between 2003 and 2009 has been $500 Billion a year on average, for a total (budget + out of budget) deficit of about $6 Trillion between 2001 and 2009. For reference, FY2001 deficit was less than $40 Billion by the end of the exercise but was actually balanced when signed. FY2002 deficit was about $150 Billion.