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I'd agree that Obama is spinning things a bit here, but people can't have it both ways.
Regardless if it was a Dem controlled congress the past two years it was Bush who held the VETO pen and could have stopped spending had he wished. Even if Obama did vote for some of this spending Bush still was in charge if you take the "buck stops here" attitude.
And as I've mentioned before, Obama did inherit a 400B+ deficit made much worse by the TARP and the acquisition of Freddie and Fannie...all led by the Bush Treasury department.
Additionally the recession (which began long before Obama) has reduced tax revenues by hundreds of billions, increased Federal spending for insurance and aid, and (granted this is arguable) required stimulus spending.
In summary...
So could have Obama made the current deficit smaller had he wished? Yes he could.
So would the current deficit still be dramatically larger than the previous years regardless of what Obama would do? Yes, it would.
-spence
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