Viral Facebook post says Barack Obama has lowest spending record of any recent president

[Galraedia]

Source: PolitiFact

On May 22, 2012, Rex Nutting, the international commentary editor for the financial website MarketWatch, published a column titled, "Obama spending binge never happened." Nutting’s column explored data on federal spending patterns during recent presidencies, concluding that -- contrary to the tax-and-spend stereotype of Democrats -- President Barack Obama has actually presided over the smallest increases in federal spending of any recent president.

The column went viral. Within hours, people who liked the column were posting a graphic on Facebook that paired a line from Nutting’s column with a quote from Mitt Romney’s campaign website.

Under the heading, "Romney’s World," the Facebook post quoted a Romney Web page saying, "Since President Obama assumed office three years ago, federal spending has accelerated at a pace without precedent in recent history." (That accurately quotes Romney.)

Immediately to the right, under the heading, "Real World," the Facebook post provided a retort using a caption from Nutting’s key chart: "Government spending under Obama, including his signature stimulus bill, is rising at a 1.4 percent annualized pace — slower than at any time in nearly 60 years." (The post cited the quotation to the Wall Street Journal; technically, Nutting writes for MarketWatch, which is an affiliate of the Wall Street Journal.)

Read more: http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2012/may/23/facebook-posts/viral-facebook-post-says-barack-obama-has-lowest-s/

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Bottom line: The Facebook post’s claim that government spending under Obama is "slower than at any time in nearly 60 years" is very close to accurate. ~PolitiFact

[Renew Deal]

1. So Romney's statement is technically true

[drm604]

2. Good point!

[zbdent]

15. +1000!

I agree perfectly ...

but then, the sheeple wouldn't realize it, and actually think that Obama outspent everybody ...

[cosmicone]

34. The lock-step repuke buffoons don't understand physics

or mathematics.

They don't know that acceleration is simply a rate of change of velocity and that deceleration is also acceleration.

[underpants]

3. The Politifact analysis shows this to be ironclad true

and BOOM goes the dynamite.

[cindyperry2010]

4. And look who is in first place the great

Ronnie Reagan i saw this on think progress earlier. great stuff when facts win out the day

[bloomington-lib]

5. Viral FB makes it sound less true. Should be "Wall Street Journal says"

[NewJeffCT]

29. well, the Wall Street Journal is well known

for its radical liberal bias.

[hwmnbn]

6. K&R

[louis-t]

7. I also have right wing nuts tell me..

"Obama has quadrupled the national debt." These people are mentally disturbed.

[AsahinaKimi]

8. I am sure they got their ideas of that

From Rush Limbaugh and other liars at FOX NEWS.

[Plucketeer]

23. Not mentallly disturbed -

just devotees of FOX news.

[louis-t]

43. Then "willfully ignorant" describes them.

[Iliyah]

9. The stats are true

Pres O is the lowest when it comes to spending BUT of course the right wingers will turn it around and of course Mittens will take credit for it somehow - LOL

[Southerner]

10. I'm not letting Obama off that easy.

Politifact uses the premise that all spending for Obama's first year in office is not attributed to him so it doesn't count. It is Bush's budget submitted and approved by Congress the previous year. I have posted many times here evidence, easily begotten from many sources, that NOT including the bailouts and the stimulus spending, the federal government spent about $500 billion more than what was in the Bush budget in fiscal year 2009. We should be looking into just how that happened.

Is it too late to run Hillary for president instead?

[freshwest]

19. No, your choices are Obama, Romney or Paul if you prefer. Who's best of the three?

[Jamaal510]

37. There's no point in fixing something that ain't broken.

[happyslug]

11. So the two Presidents with lower numbers are Truman (Do to the end of WWII) and Hoover!!!!!

Last edited Wed May 23, 2012, 07:21 PM - Edit history (3)

President.....Fiscal year baseline.....Last fiscal year...Average percentage ............................................................................increase per year
Carter....................1977.....................1981.....................16.4
Nixon.....................1969.....................1975.....................13.5
Johnson.................1964.....................1969.....................11.0
George W. Bush......2001.....................2009.....................10.2
Reagan...................1981.....................1989.......................8.6
Kennedy.................1961.....................1964.......................7.1
George H.W. Bush...1989.....................1993.......................5.8
Clinton................... 1993.....................2001.......................4.0
Eisenhower..............1953.....................1961.......................3.6
Obama....................2009.....................2013.......................1.4

I notice the chart only goes back to Eisenhower, thus avoiding the severe drop in spending in the first years of Truman's Administration (and the huge cut back in spending due to the ending of WWII). Truman would have started in a high year (if NOT the highest year in real terms ever) of 1945, and then down till it started to go up after the start of the Korean War. Thus we have to go back to Truman to get a lower percentage AND if we dismiss that as the one time event that it was we have to go back to Hoover (FDR started low, due to how Hoover was handling the Depression but went super high due to WWII, thus FDR number would be high, but it is NOT reported on the Web site, Neither is Truman's nor Hoover's).

[tularetom]

12. WTF Politifact? "...very close to accurate"

How frickin much closer do they think it could get? It's either accurate or it isn't and it appears to me that the claim is accurate.

No wonder organization like that have no credibility.

[Chakaconcarne]

13. One thing I've heard from the right about spending.....

has been around the bank bailouts here and abroad. 30 trillion......They (Tea Party) have been lumping that in to the overall spending discussions. Though I doubt that would get brought up publicly in the media or rebuttal from the organized right.

One thing I don't get.... The Obama administration could have refuted GOP spending claims all along. Why haven't they? Or have they just been readying to set up the GOP for something like this to protect chances of re-election and to squash the party?

The GOP has been screaming this so loudly and for so long.... If this information does in fact spread to every household, it should bury the GOP leaving only the straggling extremists.

[zbdent]

16. Plus, they count money not spent ...

like the "failed stimulus" ... a good portion of the "stimulus" was not spent ... yet ... but it is taking effect ...

[Iliyah]

14. The tea brats never

mentioned the two unpaid WARS huh? And that the Bush Tax cuts for the weathly also sent the US into a recession and that without the help of the party of no Pres O is trying to pull us out and has been successful so far huh.

Of course you have people who complain, but I guess thats easy to do.

Please be aware that the crazed GOP were hoping for Hillary, praying to their GAWD for her to win the Dem nom. Y'think they are terribly harsh on Pres O, shit, it would have been on the same level of hatred and opposition.

The insane party of no ONLY WANT ONE RULING PARTY, theirs.

[zbdent]

17. Bush? BUSH??? Who's this "Bush" person?

It was Carter, then Clinton, then Obama ...



(let's not forget Pelosi/Reed/Chappaquiddick)

[alp227]

18. Good antidote to the right wing mythology that gets spread on Facebook,

such as the "economics professor uses socialist grading system" story or "girl wants to run for president and feed the homeless" stories.

[TiberiusB]

20. Kind of sad, actually...

...to see liberals rushing to high five each other over their team's willingness to trip over themselves to "out GOP" the GOP.

While it may be satisfying to point out the low levels of spending growth under Obama's leadership, it avoids a critical point. Namely, that spending should be much higher during severe economic downturns, not lower. Debt isn't the problem, it's the lack of growth and employment, which erodes the tax base. Just look at Europe. Austerity during anything other than a period of robust economic growth is asking for, at best, a slow, weak recovery (what we have now) and possibly another disastrous downturn (which we may get in the coming budget talks).

Unfortunately, the rush among Democrats to embrace deficit hysteria has framed the entire debate as a competition between the Right and the Left to see who can inflict the most damage on the 99%.

So, yeah, this might help Obama look more Republican than Romney, helping him get re-elected, but it's really pretty sad that this is the state of our political debate.

[progressoid]

33. +10000.

I whole heartedly agree.

[iemitsu]

35. you are right on the money tiberiusb

its not much to brag about when our government (of the people, by the people, and for the people) won't spend our own money to get the economy off the ground.
things are not working as they should.

[raouldukelives]

38. It's possible. Maybe it's the mad rush to the middle.

You hate crime? We hate crime! You hate the New Deal? We hate the New Deal! You like war? We like war!
I do get easily discouraged though and sometimes think that most of the politicians care more about money & power than they do the country or it's citizens. Which I know is false of course. They get involved in politics because they love America and want all it's people to be prosperous and enjoying freedoms the founders could only dream of. Working together to create a shining beacon on the hill inviting all people to come and share in our bounty of democracy and goodwill.
Still, it can seem like we get off track of that vision sometimes.

[SleeplessinSoCal]

40. I posted the chart and got some "thank you's" for it.

at least it debunks a vital talking point of the tea party.

[just1voice]

41. So true. It's also sad how much importance is placed on facebook and twitter

I understand how corrupt and worthless MSMedia is but some "viral" political ad is no different. As you pointed out, the "viral" post on facebook completely misses the point that much more spending should be occurring if a real economic recovery is ever going to occur.

[MatthewStLouis]

46. True, we should be spending like crazy (on infrastructure) to create jobs and help the economy.

I guess the point of pushing back against these right wing spending lies is really to point out that the republicans are the ones who spend like drunken sailors (usually on things like military toys and roads in Baghdad) then hypocritically tout austerity.

In all reality, Obama has had his hands tied by our lame congress. It's amazing he got any stimulus passed at all.

[roseBudd]

21. DUers, go forth and share this on Facebook n/t

[truthisfreedom]

22. Just did. 8^D

[Douglas Carpenter]

24. needs to go super-viral ..a very important story

[sulphurdunn]

25. Is it possible

that Romney has never publicly spoken the truth about anything? Because if he has, I've never heard it.

[fascisthunter]

26. yet the corporate media MUST make things even

by propagandizing for the reich wing.

[cr8tvlde]

27. Perhaps someone can notify the DNC so they have something to do

other than to practice the fine art of Apologetics to the RW Insanity. When one gets in the voter booth, bipartisanship doesn't matter for bull puckey.

It's called The Offensive ... because occasionally, it's necessary.

Thanks to the OP for the information.

[fascisthunter]

28. I Think They know... I think it's all bullshit Kabuki

[KansDem]

30. KnR

I don't know how anyone could believe the GOP lies!

[Courtesy Flush]

31. This is pissing off my FB friends already. Thanks.

[tabasco]

32. The truth no longer matters

The masses of idiots will believe what Fox and the rest of the corporate whore media tell them.

[Scurrilous]

36. K & R

[mikeysnot]

39. Ann Coulter's Article

Project much Ann?

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51706

Figures don't lie: Democrats do
by Ann Coulter
05/23/2012

It's been breaking news all over MSNBC, liberal blogs, newspapers and even The Wall Street Journal: "Federal spending under Obama at historic lows ... It's clear that Obama has been the most fiscally moderate president we've had in 60 years." There's even a chart!

I'll pause here to give you a moment to mop up the coffee on your keyboard. Good? OK, moving on ...

This shocker led to around-the-clock smirk fests on MSNBC. As with all bogus social science from the left, liberals hide the numbers and proclaim: It's "science"! This is black and white, inarguable, and why do Republicans refuse to believe facts?

How many logical fallacies can you find in this article...

[Recursion]

42. Lowest spending *growth*. Highest spending (nt)

[Thrill]

44. Now if only mainstream media would do their job

.

[olddad56]

45. Misleading. He doesn't have the lowest spending record, he has the SLOWEST rate of spending growth.