Government Spending Realities

This chart from Andrew Sullivan blew me away.  I already knew that the current administration and congress hadn't increased spending like the Republicans say- in fairness, a big reason that outlays have been lower is that the Republicans have been putting lots of downward pressure on spending.

But the point remains: Obama has been the most fiscally responsible president in modern times in terms of spending.

So why has the deficit ballooned so much?  Well, for one thing, he inherited an enormous budget deficit.  For another thing, it's tough to cut spending when all the automatic spending is going up during a recession (Unemployment, Medicaid, Food Stamps, etc).  But most of all, tax receipts go way down in a big recession, and that's certainly been the case.  On top of that, a big chunk of the stimulus measures has consisted of tax cuts, so receipts are even lower than they would have normally been.  Republicans don't filibuster tax cuts like they do spending hikes.

I guess the Republican rejoinder to this would be that sadly, GW Bush got the tax side right, but betrayed the movement on the spending side.  Of course, Reagan and Bush I had similar spending sprees, so what is here is more of a trend.  It's important to remember that Republicans don't really care about deficits- that's just window dressing for their real goal, which is lower taxes on the wealthy.

Some day they'll get another chance to prove me wrong- maybe even in 2013.  If they win, I really hope they do prove me wrong on that score, because then we can have a debate that's about real things- what are our priorities?  Do we really want lower taxes and lower spending like we say we do?  Instead we're having this fake debate in which Republicans pose as fiscally responsible budgeters in the face of all evidence to the contrary.