When President Obama announced the debt limit deal with Congress in late July, he claimed the legislation would result in “the lowest level of annual domestic spending since Dwight Eisenhower was president.” We’re spending less now then we did over 50 years ago? How is that even possible? The answer, in short, is it’s not.

The United States spent an inflation-adjusted $327 billion on nondefense programs in 1961, Eisenhower’s last full fiscal year in office. In 2011, according to a new Congressional Budget Office report released last week, we will spend $2.9 trillion.