Under Obama Federal Spending has increased less than all administrations since Eisenhower

President Barack Obama - Betting on America
President Barack Obama – Betting on America

A Facebook friend forwarded this article yesterday from Forbes Magazine written by Rick Unger back in May. The headline in caught my attention. Who Is The Smallest Government Spender Since Eisenhower? Would You Believe It’s Barack Obama? I thought; this is just to good to pass up. I was right.

While TEA Partiers, Congressional Republicans, and presidential nominee Mitt Romney are running around screaming that Barack Obama is destroying our country with excessive spending the facts reveal a far different story.

Source: MarketWatch

[I’m hearing Republican heads exploding in the distance.]

Unger bases his column on a May 22nd commentary by Rex Nutting over at the Wall Street Journal’s Market Watch. Rex Nutting wrote in May for MarketWatch:

Of all the falsehoods told about President Barack Obama, the biggest whopper is the one about his reckless spending spree.

As would-be president Mitt Romney tells it: “I will lead us out of this debt and spending inferno.”

Almost everyone believes that Obama has presided over a massive increase in federal spending, an “inferno” of spending that threatens our jobs, our businesses and our children’s future. Even Democrats seem to think it’s true.

But it didn’t happen. Although there was a big stimulus bill under Obama, federal spending is rising at the slowest pace since Dwight Eisenhower brought the Korean War to an end in the 1950s.

Even hapless Herbert Hoover managed to increase spending more than Obama has.

Over Obama’s four budget years, federal spending is on track to rise from $3.52 trillion to $3.58 trillion, an annualized increase of just 0.4%.

There has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear.

There is a common misconception that the budget for the first year of a new President’s term is his responsibility. In fact, when the President enters office, the first budget is already four months old. It belongs to the previous administration. Therefore the first budget that can be blamed on President Barack Obama was passed in 2010.

The 2009 budget that soared from from $2.98 trillion to $3.52 trillion (17.9%) belongs to President George W. Bush, not President Obama as the Republican’s would have you believe.

Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky)

In a similar fashion Mitt Romney and Republican obstructionists in Congress have made it their sole mission to oppose every initiative proposed by President Obama to address the economic recession that George W. Bush created. As Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said early on, it was his sole mission to ensure that Obama was a one term president.

In their campaign to take control of the House of Representatives in 2010, the GOP pledged to focus on jobs and the economy. They have’t even tried to do what they said they would do. Instead, they have voted 33 times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, while never voting once to create jobs.

The Obama for America campaign has released a list of 33 reasons why the Republicans shouldn’t have voted for the 33rd time to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

That’s 33 attempts to scrap health reform without offering a single idea on how to replace the law and still make coverage affordable and more secure. As a leader of the GOP, Mitt Romney has promised to “kill” Obamacare on day one, if elected.

To remind Romney and Republicans of what’s at stake, here are 33 reasons why repealing Obamacare would be bad news for the middle class:

  1. Seniors in the Medicare “doughnut hole” are saving an average of $600 each on prescription drugs.
  2. Many small businesses that provide health insurance are eligible for tax credits that can currently reduce their health care costs by as much as 35 percent, and will increase to 50 percent in 2014.
  3. Insurance companies can no longer deny coverage to the up to 17 million kids with pre-existing conditions like Jackson Coffman.
  4. Stacey Lihn and 105 million Americans—including almost 60 percent of people with insurance from their employer—saw a lifetime cap on their coverage lifted.
  5. More than 5 million people with Medicare have saved money on their prescription drugs.
  6. Starting in 2014, being a woman will no longer be considered a pre-existing condition.
  7. The law extends the solvency of the Medicare Trust Fund by eight years.
  8. Hospitals have new resources to prevent infections and unnecessary readmissions, which could save $35 billion, and more importantly, 60,000 lives.
  9. Insurance companies have to spend 80 percent of our premiums dollars on actual care, and if they don’t, Americans get a rebate check. This rule will provide nearly 12.8 million Americans with more than $1 billion in rebates this year.
  10. 3.1 million young people like Emily Schlichting who would otherwise be uninsured have coverage under their parents’ plan.
  11. The law is the largest middle-class tax cut for health care in history.
  12. Insurance companies are finally banned from cancelling coverage based on paperwork mistakes.
  13. Seniors with Medicare can now get a free, annual checkup with their doctor.
  14. The National Health Service Corps is now placing more doctors in nurses in communities that need more health care professionals.
  15. More than 67,000 people—many with life-threatening illnesses—have coverage through the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan.
  16. Doctors and nurses can better coordinate the care they provide.
  17. Soon, if you don’t get coverage at work, you’ll be able to shop in a new Affordable Insurance Exchange.
  18. If you like the health coverage you have, you can keep it.
  19. The law cracks down on Medicare fraud.
  20. If your insurance company tries to deny coverage for treatment you need, you have the right to appeal their decision.
  21. Insurance plans have to cover preventive care for women like mammograms, and soon well-woman visits, without any copays or deductibles.
  22. People with disabilities have better options to get home and community-based care.
  23. Medicare provided more than 6 million free mammograms in 2011 because of Obamacare.
  24. Insurance companies that want to hike up rates have to explain their actions to independent experts.
  25. The Prevention and Public Health Fund is helping states and communities invest in preventing disease before it starts.
  26. The law funds new School Based Health Centers to keep students healthy.
  27. Hundreds of new Community Health Center facilities are being built and renovated because of Obamacare.
  28. Insurance companies have to let you choose a primary care doctor from within the network, and let you see an OB/GYN without a referral.
  29. Regular pediatricians visits and immunizations for your kids are now covered with no copays or deductibles.
  30. Medicare pays primary care providers a new bonus payment so seniors have better access to their doctors.
  31. The law provides new tools to fight health disparities.
  32. A new insurance finder at HealthCare.gov helps families and small businesses find affordable coverage now.
  33. In just eighteen months, all Americans will have access to affordable health care coverage, so 30 million people will gain health insurance.

These are just some of the ways Obamacare is strengthening health coverage. Every time Republicans revel in empty political attacks on health care reform, they trivialize the health and economic security of everyone who needs—and deserves—affordable, quality health care.

FACTS MATTER! And facts are the things Republicans fear most. They will tell you the sky is falling, but they wont tell you that is it the roof they have built that is falling down on their heads. Instead, they blame President Obama.

Silly Republicans, tricks are for kids. Time to grow up and take responsibility for your actions, or lack thereof.

2 Comments

  1. How to Lie With Statistical Facts:

    $16 Trillion,
    Sen. Sanders Compels Fed Release of Info on ‘$16 Trillion’ In Bailouts; Calls for Glass Steagall
    December 2, 2010 • 9:51AM
    http://larouchepac.com/node/16697

    GEITHNER AND BERNANKE DEMAND NEW MEGA-BAILOUT OF EUROPE
    June 26, 2012
    Former FED Chairman Paul VOLCKER CONFESSES TO
    $2 TRILLION SWINDLE AGAINST THE AMERICAN PEOPLE
    ( In the late 1970s and 80s, Volcker presided over the take down of the real U.S. economy by driving interest rates up over 20 percent, bankrupting countless farms and businesses.)
    June 19, 2012
    http://larouchepac.com/files/2012062-geithner-bernanke_1.pdf

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