The Mess He Inherited

By Randall Hoven

If you haven't already seen this graph put together by the Washington Post, please look at it now and show it to all your friends.

chart

Just in case someone tries to tell you that 2009 is really George Bush's budget, recall that the $787B stimulus package was all Obama's idea, and passed with zero Republican votes in the House and just three in the Senate. Also recall that $410B was added to the 2009 budget just last month, with only 16 Republican votes (of 245 yeas) in the House and eight (of 62) in the Senate. And recall that President Bush left the second half of TARP funding, $350B, to President-elect Obama last year, who promptly asked for it and got it.

Those three chunks of spending alone add up to over $1.5 trillion. Notice that the projected deficit for 2009 is about $1.8 trillion.