This quote of the day is dedicated to Chief Justice John Roberts:
“We make men without chests and expect from them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honor and are shocked to find traitors in our midst.”
–C.S. Lewis
Day: July 3, 2012
Biggest Spender In History
Peter Ferrara, writing in the June 16 Forbes, has declared President Obama to be the biggest spender in history. He points out that federal spending has increased from $2.983 trillion in 2008 to $3.796 trillion in 2012, which he calls the “highest government spending in world history”.
The column was in response to an unfounded but widely distributed claim by Internet commentator Rex Nutting that federal spending had slowed under Obama. The claim was eventually echoed by the President, himself.
Nutting explained his nuttiness by claiming “that the first year of every presidential term starts with a budget approved by the previous administration and Congress.”
Ferrara explains, however, that a president proposes a budget but it’s Congress that approves it and that Congress can approve one much different than what the president presents.
Ferrara noted that the budget presented by President Bush for Fiscal Year 2009 called for a 3 percent spending increase. The budget approved by the Democrat-controlled Congress and implemented by President Obama hiked spending 17.9 percent.
He noted that the Democrats only passed three of FY 2009’s 12 appropriations bills while Bush was in office waiting for Obama to take charge before doing the rest.