In a Huffington Post blog entry on Thursday previewing his upcoming budget proposal, President Obama wrote, “I’m proud that since I took office, we’ve experienced the fastest period of sustained deficit reduction since the end of World War II.”
The reason Obama can claim record-fast deficit reduction? Deficits soared early in his presidency.
The federal deficit in 2009 — Obama’s first year in office — was the highest deficit since 1945, the last year of World War II, at 9.8 percent of GDP. Over $1.4 trillion in the red, the 2009 deficit was the highest ever in dollar terms. Some of that deficit was outside Obama’s control due to the poor economy.
Still, Obama made the deficit worse through the stimulus package of 2009, which cost around $800 billion, and contributed roughly $185 billion to the deficit in 2009 alone.
Today, the federal deficit is still almost $200 billion higher than it was in 2008.
More importantly, as I reported earlier this week, even though the deficit is narrowing for now, it’s expected to start rising again by the end of the decade. Unlike after World War II, in which the nation’s cumulative debt burden steadily fell, the U.S. debt is remaining at historically high levels and will increase to record breaking levels in the coming decades.
Yes, the deficit is lower today than it was after its historic rise during his presidency. But it’s absurd for Obama to claim he has a fiscally responsible record.
