Federal Spending: Obama beats Bush
Posted: Tue May 21, 2013 2:34 am
Federal Spending
For all the talk of spending “cuts,” the fact is that spending by the federal government has continued to rise under Obama. But it has gone up far less rapidly than it did under Bush.
The Office of Management and Budget projects federal spending in the current fiscal year (which ends Sept. 30) to be just under $3.7 trillion — or 4 percent more than it was in 2012.
By our calculations, spending has risen a total of 11.2 percent since Obama first took office — counting $203 billion in new spending added under Obama in fiscal 2009. That’s the most we figure Obama can fairly be credited with adding to the FY2009 spending levels he inherited from Bush after he took office nearly four months into the fiscal year. For details on how we arrived at that figure, see our June 4 “Obama’s Spending” article.
By comparison, federal outlays increased by 33 percent in Bush’s first term (comparing actual spending for fiscal 2005 with that for fiscal 2001, which was the last year for which Bill Clinton set spending levels). And spending rose another 34 percent in Bush’s final term, even after subtracting Obama’s $203 billion from fiscal 2009.
As we pointed out in our June article, one Republican analyst has credited Obama with adding somewhat less spending than we do to Bush’s fiscal 2009 levels. So it could be argued that spending rose a bit more in Bush’s last term, and has risen a bit less since then, than our figures indicate. But even so, federal spending rose at least three times faster under Bush than it has so far under Obama.
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Of course, no one on the Right started freaking out about the National Debt until Obama stepped foot in the White House.
For all the talk of spending “cuts,” the fact is that spending by the federal government has continued to rise under Obama. But it has gone up far less rapidly than it did under Bush.
The Office of Management and Budget projects federal spending in the current fiscal year (which ends Sept. 30) to be just under $3.7 trillion — or 4 percent more than it was in 2012.
By our calculations, spending has risen a total of 11.2 percent since Obama first took office — counting $203 billion in new spending added under Obama in fiscal 2009. That’s the most we figure Obama can fairly be credited with adding to the FY2009 spending levels he inherited from Bush after he took office nearly four months into the fiscal year. For details on how we arrived at that figure, see our June 4 “Obama’s Spending” article.
By comparison, federal outlays increased by 33 percent in Bush’s first term (comparing actual spending for fiscal 2005 with that for fiscal 2001, which was the last year for which Bill Clinton set spending levels). And spending rose another 34 percent in Bush’s final term, even after subtracting Obama’s $203 billion from fiscal 2009.
As we pointed out in our June article, one Republican analyst has credited Obama with adding somewhat less spending than we do to Bush’s fiscal 2009 levels. So it could be argued that spending rose a bit more in Bush’s last term, and has risen a bit less since then, than our figures indicate. But even so, federal spending rose at least three times faster under Bush than it has so far under Obama.
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Of course, no one on the Right started freaking out about the National Debt until Obama stepped foot in the White House.