Citing a report based on Congressional Budget Office (CBO) data, President Barack Obama is disputing Republican claims that he has presided over a huge increase in government spending, according to
ABC News’ OTUS blog.
At a fundraising event in Denver Wednesday night, Obama insisted that he is “running to pay down our debt in way that’s balanced and responsible,” saying that he inherited a $1 trillion deficit and has signed $2 trillion in spending cuts into law to deal with it.
“Since I’ve been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years,” the president said.
Obama’s references to spending were apparently based on an analysis released earlier this week by CBS MarketWatch reporter Rex Nutting, who found after examining CBO data that spending under Obama has risen at only a 1.4 percent pace.
“The big surge in federal spending happened in fiscal 2009, before Obama took office,” Nutting concluded in his report. “Since then, spending growth has been relatively flat.
“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 percent. There has been no huge increase in spending under the current president, despite what you hear,” Nutting added.
Republicans, however, disagree.
According to ABC OTUS, the Republican National Committee released a statement pointing out that while spending and debt may have actually slowed, they still view Obama as the “undisputed debt king” of the last five presidents, a designation that Politifact saddled him with last year.
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