I like the way Dave Johnson started his article on this subject.
He gathered the following three charts from the Budget of the United States Government: Historical Tables Fiscal Year 2012, and advised us that the next time “your right-wing brother-in-law” who “…is plugged into the FOX-Limbaugh Lie Machine, and keeps sending you emails about “Obama spending” and “Obama deficits” and how the “Stimulus” just made things worse…”, these are the charts you should show him.
Keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best. Although you will be presenting that person with the facts, the FOX-Limbaugh Lie Machine is very effective. Most, subjected to their daily dose of lies, don’t even know they’re infected.
Here goes!
Chart 1 – Spending
- Under George Bush, spending increased by 88%.
- Under Barack Obama, spending increased by 7.2%. Yet, this President is being blamed by the right for massive spending.
Chart 2 – Deficit
- On the left of this chart, we see Bush increases the deficit by $1.4 trillion. This was after taking office with a $128 billion surplus from his predecessor, Bill Clinton.
- On the right of this chart, we see Barack Obama temporarily increasing the deficit, mainly because when he came into office, George Bush’s fiscal policies were still in effect. For the remaining years of Obama’s term/s, deficit projection is expected to be at reduced levels, as compared to that of Bush.
Chart 3 – The Stimulus
- This one is so simple, even Fox dedicated viewers could see what’s happening. When George Bush left office, as shown in the red, his policies caused a consistent job loss in the private market every month. After Obama took office, and after signing the stimulus into law, the blue lines shows fewer and fewer monthly job loss, eventually resulting in job gains. And as the chart says, July marked the 17th consecutive month of private sector job growth under President Obama.
